Pretend
by Flitting Wishes
Summary: Max lives for running and skateboarding. But now her and Ella have to live with their jerk of a Dad for a whole year! But while she's there, she'll meet the only people besides her mom and siblings who'll ever get close enough to know...FAX!Review! ***HIATUS***
1. Others like myself

**Hey! So, here's my new story, Pretend! I know I have two stories going already, but I wanted to make a complete All Human AU for MR instead of an AU were they have wings. **

**DISCLAIMER: No. I do not own Maximum Ride or Pretend (which is by LIGHTS)**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***

* * *

Running. It's another form of art. While you run, you let out everything you've been keeping inside you. You express yourself. Some hate it, that's why they stick with singing, dance, sports, etc. But others live for it.

Others like myself. My name is Max Martinez. I was fifteen years old, and I lived in Phoenix, Arizona. My mother, Valencia Martinez is a vet. My father lives in California, they're divorced. I have a little (half-) brother named Ari, and a half-sister named Ella, still younger than me. Ari lived with his dad in California, but we called him a lot and video chatted with him a lot too. He always said he missed Ella, mom and I. Ella lived with mom and I.

As I was saying, I lived for track. Track and skateboarding. I guess I was what you'd call a "tom-boy" but…eh.

Apparently I was a good singer, which was completely random considering next to no one in my family could sing.

I wanted to be a famous skateboarder, even though I loved running too. Some say it's not a good career chose, but I disagreed.

I'm sorry to tell you that I did not have any real friends. I stayed away from people most of the time, and I'd never really taken the time to get to know anyone. When someone gets close, I ran away. Metaphorically and literally.

See, I had had a tough life, which only made _me _tougher. I used to be a daddy's girl, but when I was about six; he just got up and left. Never told me goodbye.

I had another brother. His name was Brandon. I nicknamed him "Brand muffin" because he'd call me Maxi and he knew I didn't really like that. He was my full brother.

I miss him too much right now. I was closer with him than mom, or even dad.

One night, he was out at his friend's house too late. He left his house at about one and on the way…some drunk driver…

He's gone.

I had a best friend, once. Her name was Melinda. I told her _everything. _We were the kind of friends a girl would have on TV, and everyone in real life wishes they had a friend like that.

Then the jock asked her out, they started dating, and she turned her back on me. Stabbed me when I wasn't looking.

She was telling all the popular groups about everything. Everything I told her, at least. It was a good thing only mom, Ella and I knew about Brandon. Ari was too young. He was only five. Brandon died four years before then, so when Ari was one.

Ella and I were moving in with dad. We were leaving in about a week. Coming back in about a year. He was actually moving from California to Colorado, so that's closer to Arizona. Ella and I were going to visit mom on holiday breaks.

I didn't even really want to go live with him. I hadn't forgiven him. Not yet. Or maybe I wouldn't at all. I'm not sure. It's hard to tell. I could seriously hold a grudge for _very_ long periods of time.

Ella was about just as excited as I was. She could hold grudges for almost as long as _me. _

At that moment, I was running. Running as fast as I possibly could. Converse-clad feet pounding against the hard concrete, dirty blonde braid flying behind me, heart pounding—

Or maybe I should start from the beginning.

* * *

_"Maxi!" He called out. I snapped my head behind me. There, there he was. Running behind me, grinning, trying to catch up with me. I smiled my biggest smile ever and stopped. He caught up and grabbed me hand in his before running off in the same direction. I sprinted along with him. I knew where he was taking me. The tree house._

_Dad made it for us when I was five. It was so much fun, playing up in that tree house, adding pictures I drew of the family or things Ella had made out of play dough. At four, she was already a natural artist and I loved her to pieces. _

_We approached the house, and he climbed up the sturdy boards, reaching the top far before I did. He was always better at climbing and gymnastics and all that. I was better at running and balance. _

_Seeing me struggle, he held his hand out for me to grab, and when I did, he hauled me up on the wooden panels. I said a thank you, and looked around the tree house. It looked exactly the same it did yesterday. Picture badly drawn with my six-year-old hands, Ella delicately sculpted figures of cups or vases or a flower or something else she liked to sculpt. Pictures of Ella, Brandon, and I together, playing on the playground just around the block, me swinging and laughing, Ella sticking her tongue out at the camera—still smiling—while riding on the rocking-horse-thing, and Brandon pushing me, smiling like crazy. His brown hair sticking up in the oddest ways like it always used to, and his square glasses pulled up his nose. His brown eyes shinned brightly and happily as he pushed me. I missed those days. _

_There were scattered games, books, and journals (Brandon's) lying all around. A small flashlight lied on the one small table in the house, and the four chairs were left the way we left them the previous day. Buckets of markers stacked on the floor next to the chair, while paper and unfinished drawings were snuggled up in the plastic blue bin sitting next to the markers. A couple of hair bands and clips scattered carelessly across one of the bookshelves. Ella always hid those here incase she needed some. _

_I smile made its way onto my lips again, and I looked at Brandon. He looked so much like he did in the picture…_

"_Hey, Brand muffin?" I asked him, smiling fully now. He looked at me and grinned his usual, _Brandon grin_. "Yeah, Maxi? What is it?" He bent down to my level. At 4'4 I was taller than some in my grade, but Brandon was 6'4 so he definitely had to bend down to my height to be eye level. My smile fell, and I studied my shoes, chewing on my bottom lip. I didn't look up when I barely murmured to him, "I heard mommy and daddy talking about you going away for school…" I looked up slowly, and saw that he was frowning, something very unusual for Brandon. "You mean…College?" He said. I nodded, suddenly remembering that was what mom and dad had called it when I over heard them talking about him going away. I had gotten so sad…_

"_Yes," I whispered. "College. They said…that you were…" I didn't finish and my eyes furrowed. I looked down at my shoes, and made my long, wavy, blonde hair fall infront of me so he couldn't see me very well. _

"_They said I was leaving for a long time?" He asked me gently. I nodded again. They _had _said that. It scared me, too. _

"_Uh-huh. They said we wouldn't be able to see you except for Christmas and summer…. Brandon, are you actually leaving us? Please don't say yes…" I couldn't let Brandon leave! He couldn't! I loved him too much too be separated from him for four years except for Holidays. It couldn't happen. Not to me. Not to us. He couldn't leave! _

_He didn't say anything after a moment, and I got the hint. He really _was _leaving us. For so long…_

_You'd expect tears to fall. Oh, they fell all right. _

_I started to cry softly, the tears falling and sliding down my cheeks silently. "Why are you leaving us? I thought you loved us…why would you leave?" I hadn't meant for our visit to the tree house to turn into a crying fest, but the question of whether or not it was true had been nagging in the back of my head all week. I still couldn't believe it. _

"_Maxi."_

_Brandon looked up at me. "Maxi, look at me." I didn't. He lifted my chin up a little so I could look him in the eyes. I tried to stop crying since even though we were close, I didn't want Brandon to see me cry so much. The tears wouldn't stop though. I fought again. _

_Nothing. They kept coming. _

"_Maxi, I am not leaving now. I will someday, but not now. And I _do _love you, Max. I love all of my family. But I need to go to school, too. I'll visit as often as possible, and I'll make sure to write to you ever week, alright?" I sniffled, and then wiped away some tears. "Promise, Brand muffin?" I asked him. He had to promise me he would visit us as often as possible, he would write me each week, and he did love us. _

_He smiled a small, fragile smile. Not the kind he usually had. It startled me for a moment. Then he held out his right pinky finger, and told me, "Pinky promise, Maxi." And got up from his spot down at my eye level. I smiled a full-blown one, and hugged his waist due to the height difference. He laughed lightly and ruffled my already-messed-up hair.

* * *

_

I woke up via very-freaking-annoying-alarm-clock-that-doesn't-seem-to-want-to-shut-the-heck-up. It was blaring at full blast, and I looked at my clock between half-shut (or half-open) eyes, still half asleep. Seven thirty-five AM. By a show of hands, who wakes up that early in freaking _summer? _

That's what I thought.

Ella must have set my alarm clock before I went to bed last night so I'd wake up early. Probably getting me ready to wake up at four to go to the airport since out flight was at seven and it takes about an hour to get there.

Long time, I know. But whatever.

I unwillingly got out of my soft and comfy bed, and found some clothes to wear that morning. Hmm…How about…Blue t-shirt and jeans? Oh, now we're shaking it up a little!

…Sarcasm, my friends.

So I threw that on (not literally) brushed threw my tangled mass of hair, and put it up in a lazy braid. I studied myself in the mirror for a moment. Blonde, wavy hair. Bangs hanging in my eyes, which slightly was annoying me. Chocolate brown eyes, button nose with sprinkles of freckles every here-and-there. I was sort of tall at 5'9.

My cheeks slightly naturally pink, lips especially red for some reason today. I shuffled around in my dresser for a second before finding my chap stick and smearing that on.

There. Now my lips looked less…lip-stick-y, I guess.

I sighed. I didn't look anything like Brandon, Ari, and Ella, dad or mom. Brandon had brown wild hair and brown eyes, oodles and oodles of freckles all running up and down his cheeks and his long nose. He was sort of lanky, I suppose. Least, that's what mom said he was. When I was little, I didn't know what that word meant.

Mom was Hispanic, black-ish-brown hair and eyes sort of like mine, but were always happier and more optimistic. She had next to no freckles and her face shape wasn't anything like mine, with an oval shape. She had a button nose like me, but our eyes and nose was the only thing in resemblance. She had a petite form, and was an average height at 5'5.

Ella looked almost exactly like mom, except she had thick, long lashes, and she had a different face shape also, probably from her father. We didn't look anything alike either. She was like mom in height too—5'3.

Ari had blonde, scruffy hair, and the prettiest sky blue sparkling eyes. He had freckles (from dad) but little of them only on his nose. He had dad's face shape, and his long nose. He was tough for a five-year-old.

My dad had really blonde, floppy hair, and baby blue eyes. A heart-face-shape, unlike my diamond-face-shape. He had a long nose (already said that) and freckles (said that, too!). His cheeks were slightly pink (I guess that's where I got it.) naturally. He was tall, 6'5—at least, taller than some _other _guys I've seen.

I'd gotten a lot of traits that no one knew who were from. Mom wasn't all that stubborn most of the time—I was as stubborn as a bull. Dad wasn't that persistent—I was. Mom and Ella were girly-girls at times—I wasn't _at all. _

I didn't like it, how different I was from everybody. I don't know why it bothered me, but it did. Deeply.

Coming out of my sudden daydreaming, I shifted through my closet for a moment before finding my black converse under a bunch of clothes that had fallen off my hangers. I laced them up as quickly as possible, and made my way to the hallway and to downstairs. I was famished.

As I was walking past Ella's room, I heard talking, then squealing coming from two people. Huh. That's weird. It didn't sound like Ella was talking on a phone, and who would come over at that hour?

Oh, wait. I had forgotten she had had her friend Jessie over the night before for a sleep over. I didn't necessarily like Jessie, but I didn't hate her either. We just didn't really click that much. She was really kind of prissy (don't tell her I said that) and I didn't want anything to do with the stuff she just _gushes _over. Plus she was a friend off Melinda's, and anyone who was friends with her, wasn't going to get along too great with _me_.

I passed by the room without any problem and hopped down the stairs. Mom was already in the kitchen flipping pancakes. She always made pancakes in the morning when Ella had friends over.

Notice how I said _Ella. _Not when _we _have friends over, no, when _Ella _has friends over.

It's sad really. But I don't spend a lot of time dwelling on it.

"Mmm," I muse, breathing in the smell of mom's ambrosial chocolate chip pancakes. When Ella and I were younger she'd make them in the shape of Mickey Mouse. I loved that…

Then when Brandon made them for Ella and I when mom was out at work or something, he'd always spell "Maximum Ride" out on it in chocolate chips on mine.

When I was little, I loved the last name Ride, and my real name was Maximum, so when Brandon was really, really proud of me, he'd call me "Maximum Ride" instead of just "Max" or "Maxi." Then my little kid face would light up and he'd ruffle my hair.

Oh, God, I missed him so much, even after four years…

"Oh, Good morning, Max." Mom greeted glancing up from the stove, startling me out of my daydreaming. I smiled warmly at her and made my way to the faucet. I washed my hands really quick before making my way to the table where mom had put down the plates and had just set down the chocolate chip pancakes and was working on the plan ones.

I grabbed three with my fork and was smearing butter all over them when I heard Ella and Jessie running down the stairs. I didn't look up from my delicious-y goodness until Ella greeted me, "Hey, Max. Up already? That's a first." I gave her a look as she smiled smugly before I said, "Yeah, well, I wouldn't have if you hadn't set my stupid alarm clock for seven freaking AM." I was annoyed, I'll admit. But it didn't last very long till I forgave her just because she was Ella and I swear—it was _impossible _to stay mad at her when she does the Bambi eyes, let me tell you.

"So, girls," Mom started the conversation with. She put the rest of the pancakes down on the table and I resumed smearing butter on then drowning it in a river of sweet, sticky syrup. "Your father called." She told us, going back to the sink to wash her hands again. I raised one eyebrow. "Oh? Why so?"

Ella agreed. "Why'd he call?"

Mom turned the water off and shook her hands before using the towel to dry them for efficiently. "He wanted me to tell you all that school will be starting two days after you get there." She said.

I only nodded, shoveling a huge chunk of pancake in my mouth. I didn't really have a response. I didn't, by any means; want to go back to school, especially at a new place.

A whole year without mom—that sounded like _torture. _No joke. I loved my mom to Pluto and back, and just the thought about leaving her for that long just to go to some new place and have to go to a new school with someone I didn't even like made me want to run away so I wouldn't have to go. But I didn't. Mother really wanted us to get to know our dad and understand why he left for once, and she wanted us to forgiven him. Pssh, as if!

She made us promise her that we'd call every so often and give her updates on _everything. _Whether we liked the school, the place, dad, the people at the school, our teachers, the neighbors, _everything. _

So we reluctantly swore on our pinky that we would do so, and mom was content with that, even though I knew she'd miss us just as much as we'd miss her.

I sure hoped that the place would be better than the school at home. Maybe I'd actually make friends that time, not get a reputation as "the girl without any friends who doesn't talk next to anyone."

Okay, so that wasn't exactly my reputation. It was just; "the girl without any friends" was mine. Without the "who doesn't talk next to anyone" at the end.

We ate the rest of breakfast mostly with silence, except for Ella and Jessie talking quietly to each other. Mom and I didn't talk that much though. I wasn't in a talking mood at all. I wasn't sure why.

I thought about telling mom about the dream I had, how weird it was that it was a memory turned into a dream. That was the weirdest part of the dream—how it was actually a memory of the thousand of mine.

But I didn't tell mom. No, I didn't even open my mouth to, I just sat there eating my awesome pancakes in silence, thinking.

When I was done, Ella and Jessie were still eating, which I thought was weird, since they had less food than me. I gulped down the last of my milk and put my dishes in the dishwasher for whoever's turn it was to do them. I told mom that the food was delicious and thank you, before announcing that I was going running. For some reason I really, really, _really_ wanted to go running. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I did. So I waved bye to them and went out the front door.

It was really hot outside, and I regretted not putting on sunscreen, but I didn't care. I shut the door lightly behind me, and had to shield my eyes for a moment when I walked off the porch from the sudden change in lighting. It was really sunny out that day, and I loved it. I hated the cold in every way, shape, or form. I had never enjoyed it when it snowed, unless we got out of school, but it barely ever snowed, so I didn't really have to worry about that.

I started off at a jog since I didn't really know where I was going. Then I decided to go to the park just around the block and took off at my top speed, which is pretty fast. I didn't feel like skateboarding today, so I just ran there. Besides, it wasn't far away at all.

When I got at the old playground/park, I ran straight towards the swings. I didn't know why I loved the swings so much, but I certainly did love them. That was basically all I did at the park—well, that, and walk through the trail. But that was it.

I didn't push very hard on the swings. I just sort of lightly swung my legs back and forward, giving me little momentum. I wasn't in the mood for actually swinging, and besides, I was fifteen—I wasn't sure if the swing set would hold, considering it was mad for little four-through-ten-year-olds.

I hummed a little of "Pretend" by this band called "LIGHTS." I loved that band so very much and I always sang it at the park for some strange reason. Seeing as there wasn't anyone there, I sang it aloud.

"Once in a while

I act like a child

To feel like a kid again

It gets like a prison in

The body I'm living in

Cause everyone's watching

Quick to start talking

I'm losing my innocence

Wish I were a little girl

Without the weight of the world

It would be nice

To start over again,

Before we were men

I'd give, I'd bend

Lets play pretend"

The song was so true in so many ways. I'm pretty sure we've all acted childish just to remember when we _were _kids. I knew I did that all the time. More than I acted like my age. Or, at least, in my head I did. "Cause everyone's watching/Quick to start talking/I'm losing my innocence" was more real than anything. If I were little again, I wouldn't have had to do the things I did.

Honestly, at school, sometimes I acted like this bad girl who doesn't care about next to no one, and really—I was _not _that. Yes, I was tough and could take care of myself, but I didn't _like _being alone besides Ella. No, I really wished I hadn't been. But I was. And in some ways I chose that. But too late now.

"It would be nice/To start over again" Yeah, it would be. I'd do so many things different. I would've stopped Brandon from going to that party and he wouldn't have died. I would've paid more attention to mom and dad, so dad wouldn't have just got up without saying anything. So many things…

"Nice voice," Some one said from behind me. I snapped my head around to see a girl with black hair and hazel eyes with square rimmed glasses standing behind me. She had on a brown shirt that said, "I LOST THE GAME" (which made me curse under my breath. I had been going strong for almost two months! Darn it…) and jean shorts that came a little above her knees, along with black TOMS.

"Who are you?" Which was my immediate response. She shrugged. "Just a girl you'll probably never see again." I raised an eyebrow like I do when I'm confused or curious. "Why so?"

She shrugged only one shoulder this time then sat down next to me on the rusty swing, creaking while she swung back and forth gently. "I'm only staying a couple days to see my grandparents, then I'm back to the Big Apple." She said.

"You're from New York?" I asked her. She nodded her head. "Mmhmm. I live with my dad, while my mom lives in South Carolina." I nodded this time, not really having any response. "But since you need a name," She said turning to me, and I looked up to look at her again. "Mine's Charlotte." She stuck her hand out for me to shake and I did after a moment of studying it. I decided that I needed to tell her my name since she told me hers.

"I'm Max."

* * *

**GAH! ABRUPT ENDING! SO VERY ANNOYING! OH MY GOSH! **

**Anyways, how'd ya like it? My average chapter is about 1,000 to 2,000 but this one was 4,048 (yes, I'm that freaking awesome ;D) It was seven and a half pages long :) **

**Hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Oh, and GO LISTEN TO THE SONG! IT'S SO FRIGGIN' AMAZING I SWEAR! **

**Review!**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	2. I looked

**Alright, so I re-read the last chapter, and found some errors (usually just type-o's, but they annoy me!) that I'll go back and fix sooner or later. Then I realized that their ages must be confusing and when all the events take place, so I'll clear that up.**

**Max:**** 15 in the present, she was 6 when Jeb left, and 11 when Brandon died. She wasn't a friend with Melinda except for freshman year, so that's why Melinda didn't know about Brandon.**

**Ella:**** 13. 9 when Brandon died, and 4 when Jeb left.**

**Ari: ****5. 1 when Brandon died, and not even alive when Jeb left (since, you know, he's Jeb and some other lady's child...)**

**Brandon:**** 24 when he died, and 19 when Max heard about him going to college. (Yes, he was a lot older than Max.)**

**There. Hope that cleaned things up a bit.**

**READ ON!**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*

* * *

**

It was weird. We had so much in common, and she just seemed really easy to talk to. Though, I did go in my shell a couple times—like when she asked about my parents—but after a look that clearly screamed, "I don't like to talk about!" she just apologized for being so "nosy" and we continued our discussion as if nothing ever happened.

And I guess you don't need to know the whole conversation of what we said, but let me just say that I seemed to have _finally _made a friend.

Yeah, too bad she had to go back to New York in a couple days.

I know, it sucked. That's what I said. But I guess things just can't go right for me, can they?

When I got home after my trip to the park, mom was in the den watching TV. Ella and Jessie weren't there so I figured I had been gone long enough for them to eat and go up stairs and stay in there for a while, chatting away obliviously.

It was about ten o'clock already, and I realized how long I had actually been at the park talking to Charlotte. I walked in the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator before heading towards the den/living room.

"Oh, that's horrible…" I had heard mom mutter, still staring at the screen. I didn't pay attention to what was on the news (though I knew for a fact it _was_ the news. That's, like, the only thing she watches) so I wasn't exactly sure as to why mom muttered that.

After taking a sip of my nice, cold water, I asked still standing almost exactly behind her, "What's horrible?"

Mom jumped. She hadn't seen me come in since I walked up behind our brown, leather couch, which was facing away from the open kitchen. Mom put a hand on her heart and turned around to give me a look. "Oh, Max, I didn't see you come in." I shrugged and after I had made my way around to sit down next to mom, set my bottle of water down on the coffee table. "I'm surprised you didn't hear me come in." I said nonchalantly.

She ignored my comment and turned her attention back to the TV.

"Seriously Mom, what's horrible?" I asked her again. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. "There's a war going on in Egypt right now. Macy—you know her? She works with me at the vet—she's Egyptian, and her family back in Egypt can't even walk out of the house without being shot…Oh, the poor dears…" I nodded. That was sad. Not being able to leave your home without the problem of being killed instantly? Heartbreaking. **(A/N: Macy's the equivalent of my mom's friend :( )**

Plus, Macy was a close friend of my mom's, so that must've been very hard on her especially. I sighed.

My phone rang—which was quite odd, considering Ella usually texts me—and I jumped while my ring tone (AKA, Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles—I quite love them. Bet you didn't know _that!_), started going off. Mom grinned at me for jumping, and I glared at her playfully before pressing the answer button on my IPhone.

"What up?" I greeted into the phone.

Ella's familiar voice responded, _"Hello to you, too, Maxi." _To which I rolled my eyes. _"What do you want from Sonic?" _

I raised an eyebrow even though she couldn't see me. "Ahh, so _that's _where you and Jessie ran off to…" I mused to her. No wonder I didn't hear them squealing or whatever up in Ella's room. I thought for a second about my order. Though I wasn't one to care about how many calories are in this and that, I did care how much money Ella spent, since it was probably _my _money.

"Ah, okay," I said to her after a moment of hesitation. "Well, in that case, if you aren't asking to go make me shop with you two, can I just get a Snicker's Blast?"

I heard Ella snicker on the other side of the line at the shopping comment. _"'Kay. Be home in about…hmm, ten minutes? Meet us outside." _

"Yeah, sure, whatever." I muttered. While I was very active, after I took a run, I was very tired and once I sat down, I did _not _want to get up.

But I did anyway and went up stairs to get changed out of my sweaty weekend clothes. I ended up just wearing something strikingly similar, except the shirt was red instead of blue (and slightly more…fancy) and I put my hair in a messy bun this time. I didn't have time to take a shower, no matter how much I wanted to, so I just ran down the stairway again.

Some time between the time in took me to go upstairs, get changed, and come back down again, Mom had started lunch, which I was thankful for. I couldn't cook to save my life. (Seriously. I burnt cereal. I didn't even know that was possible until I did!)

Ella and Jessie came through the front door just as I was coming down the stairs. Good timing, but still a cliché. Hmm, never thought that stuff happened in real life. "Yo, Ella!"

"Yes, Max, I have your Snicker's Blast." She said without hesitation and handed me my Snicker's ice cream. I snickered (Ha ha! Snicker's-snickered...No? Oh, never mind.) at her automatic response, bringing the plastic spoon up to my mouth and taking a huge bite of the delicious-ness. Ella and Jessie wrinkled their noses at the giant bit of ice cream I just shoved into my mouth.

I swallowed then proceeded to grin at Ella for her girl-y-ness. I'll admit, I don't have the best manners ever, but she should've been used to it by then! Nope, nope, Ella wasn't used to it, even after spending thirteen years with me. Jessie, I can't really blame, since she hadn't known but for a couple of months and was a whole lot more girly than Ella. But oh well.

Ella and Jessie went off to Ella's room again, and I was left to entertain myself by one of the following choices:

Watch me some TV.

Listen to my baby/ipod or

Write a song or something.

I didn't feel like running because I was still kind of tired from that run earlier.

Meh. I needed a shower anyways.

* * *

**_OH, HEY LOOK!**

**I'M A LINE PLACED IN A VERY, EXTREMELY AWKWARD PLACE TO PUT A PAGE BREAK!**

**YAY!_

* * *

**

Exactly one week later, I was being shoved into an aeroplane (haha, silly British people, how I love you. A/N: No joke, that's how I spell airplane XD I love the British. One day I will go see Platform 9 3/4) while Ella pushed along behind me, waving at Mom one last time. I waved over my shoulder at said mother briefly before going back to concentrating on not tripping over my own feet.

Some very rude lady who was shoving Ella along behind her, barked, "Hey, go already!" And Ella apologized for wanting to say goodbye one last time to her Mom before she obediently kept going. There's a difference between Ella and I: if that lady had said that to me, I would've replied back with some snarky and sarcastic comment. But Ella just apologizes and keeps going.

Her amount of patience surprises me sometimes.

Then again, I don't have any room for patience what with all my sarcastic glory, so what's a lot to me, probably is just average to everyone else…

Wow, that's messed up.

We made our way to the middle of the plane and sat down together (no duh.) I plugged in my earphones right away while Ella chatted to the girl with black hair who was sitting next to her. After about thirty minutes of listening to Iridescent by Linkin Park, I fell asleep on Ella's shoulder, much to her annoyance.

Serve's her right for waking me up that early in the summer.

* * *

**_WHAT'S THIS?**

**_ANOTHER _PAGE BREAK!**

**GASP!_

* * *

**

"MAAAAAAAAXXXX! Pleeeeeaaaaaasssseee?"

_Don't look at her, don't look at her, don't look at her, don't loo—_

I looked.

"Fine." I grumbled, defeated. Stupid Ella and her Bambi eyes…

What did I just agree to that made me curse the existence of Bambi eyes you might ask? Well, I only agreed to the most abominable, amiss, atrocious, awful, beastly, bottom out, deficient, diddly, dissatisfactory, downer thing in the _entire freaking—_

"Oh, come one, Max! Getting a makeover is not _that _bad! I swear on my pinky!" Ella held up her right pinky to demonstrate.

Yes, you heard correctly. I was all worked up over a makeover.

I HATE THE GODAWFUL THINGS!

Hey, did you know that godawful is in the dictionary? I didn't know that since whenever I text Ella something and I say godawful, my iPhone says it's incorrect, and I'm just like, "WHAT?"

That was really random, but I needed _something _to distract me from what Ella was about to do to my face.

Scratch that, all of me.

Crap, I'm thinking about it.

Curse those darn Bambi eyes!

She pulled my arm and dragged me up the unfamiliar stairs and into the room we would be sharing. Her side had a lot of movie posters and guy band posters, along with an ever-lasting supply of pink and fluff. The walls were both white, and Dad said we could paint them whenever we wanted, once we figured out what we wanted to do with it. Her bed was purple and white with a flower design of some sort across it, the pillows blank. A small bookshelf attached to her bedside table held a lot of old time books. _Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, Twilight—_things like that. Even though Ella was only thirteen, she read better then me, and understood everything that they said in the books, despite the fact they talked differently (excluding _Twilight_.)

My side had blue, black, silver, gray, and green all mixed together. My bedspread was a light blue—almost gray—and a pitch black. It was very modern—squares with smaller squares inside each other, in a sort of pattern. Blue square, black square, blue square, black square, and so on. My bedside table only had three drawers, but I didn't mind since Ella and I had decided that she got the insanely huge closet, while I got the insanely huge dresser. The top drawer next to my bed contained all the poems and songs I had written and wanted to keep, along with a couple of pens and pencils. The second contained all the things that had real sentimental value to me. And the last once was completely empty.

We had been in California for about a week in the whole, and Ella talked non-stop to her friends on the computer or her phone. Mom called every night and we always answered. I would've thought that Dad wouldn't want to talk to mom, but he actually enjoyed having a conversation with her. I still hadn't forgiven him though.

Dad was at work and school would start the next day, so we were alone until four and it was only two o'clock. Dad said that once he got home, we would have to go meet the neighbors or something or another, so Ella decided that I just _had _to have a makeover.

Oh, joy.

Ella pushed her pink rolley-chair into the very open bathroom, and forced/begged me to sit in it. I was facing away from the mirror, so I couldn't tell what she was doing to me.

"Ella," I told her while she rummaged through her bag of junk/makeup, "For all I know you're making me look like a clown, so you have to swear on your pinky to not make me look gross." I said forcefully. Ella rolled her eyes at me, to which I responded by fake pouting. "Max, I'm not about to make you look like an idiot when we are about to meet a boy your age who I hope will be hot." Yes, that's right. Apparently one of our neighbors is some guy fifteen years young, who Ella hopes to be hot so I can finally get a boyfriend.

I sighed at her while she told me close my eyes and tilt my head up, which I did obediently. "I've told you a thousand times, Ella—I do not—I repeat, do _not _want a boyfriend!" Ella continued to put whatever-colored-eye shadow-she-chose on my closed eyelids. It was quite annoying actually. She shushed me when I tried to say something, so I just shut up knowing it was no good to argue when Ella was in you-must-do-what-I-tell-you-or-I-will-murder-you-in-your-sleep mode.

I felt her take the small brush-thing away from my eye, and snap the container shut. Then I heard her shuffling through some more things before finding whatever it was she needed and snapping that open too.

I felt something quite fluffy brush lightly against my cheek, and I realized she was putting the blush on me. It was kind of tickling me, to tell you the truth, but I resisted the urge to slap her hand away.

I opened my eyes halfway through the blush, and then I was instructed to stay completely still and stare at something behind her while she put on my mascara and eyeliner.

I only let her put on a little bit of eyeliner. I wasn't exactly too fond with the stuff, and I didn't like her putting it on me. It felt too weird to stay completely still, which ended in Ella poking my eye and scolding me for moving.

It's not a very pleasant process.

She didn't put any lip stick on me—thank God—except a little bit of lip gloss, barely noticeable, which I was thankful for.

When we were finally done, I was told I could look at myself, and I had to say—I looked pretty good. Light brown-ish eye shadow with just a hint that there was some gray, and light pink blush. My mascara and eyeliner made my eyelashes look a lot longer than the stubby little things from before.

I nodded slightly at Ella letting her know that it was okay, and she went off to get some clothes for me to wear.

She came back a moment later holding a light green tank-top, a black cardigan with a flower on the right shoulder, and a pair of my many skinny jeans collection. She shoved them in my hands and left the bathroom so I could change. I quickly slipped into it, trying not to mess up my makeup, since surely Ella would go and kill me if I did—or worst. Do it over.

It was a bit too girly of an outfit for my taste, but it was decent. Ella had followed the three rules of picking out my clothes: No skirts, no heels, and nothing uncomfortable even if it _was _"fashionable."

I unlocked the door and stepped out, pulling my long hair out of the cardigan. "God, Max, it takes you forever to get dressed!" Ella complained and I quickly retorted, "Oh, like you can talk. It takes you fifteen minutes just to put on something as simple as what I'm wearing." She huffed and ushered me towards my bed, where I was ordered to sit down so Ella could do my hair.

She brushed through all the tangles as gently as she could, but it still hurt a whole lot. I seriously should've brushed my hair that morning…

"Max, Ella! I'm home!" I heard Ari yell from the hallway. I shouted back through the closed door, "Alright! We're in our room!"

I heard the shuffling of feet over hard wood floor before the door opened and Ari's little blonde head stuck through the door. He smiled at us and I smiled right back at him. "Hey, Ari, how was Timmy's?" Tommy was his friend. He had been there all day since he slept over the night before, and Timmy's mom had to bring him home since no one except Dad could drive yet, (which sucked, since we were basically trapped in the house.)

"Oh, it was great! We had lots of fun. He got a new puppy yesterday, and he named him Sam after his brother." I grinned at Ari. Little kids were so cute. "Well," I said. "I'd get up and hug you, but Ella's hacking through my hair at the moment, so…" I gestured to Ella still futilely trying to combing my hair and get out _all _the tangles.

Ari smiled one last time, then said, "I'm gonna go down stairs and call daddy, okay?" Then ran off to do just that.

Ella finally finished about two minutes after Ari's departure. "Done!" She sang, throwing her arms in the air like she won the lottery. "Gracious, Max, do you _ever _brush your hair?" I rubbed my neck nervously. "Just every other day…Why?" Ella groaned.

"You seriously need to take care of yourself more, Max. You'd be a lot prettier if you'd take time to show it!" She told me and I turned around to face her. "Ella," I sighed. "If the reason you want me to look super pretty all the sudden is because you think I need a boyfriend, let me just say on thing," I held up a finger to shush her since she had opened her mouth when I said about the boyfriend thing, "If the guy actually likes me, I won't need to go out of my way to look beautiful."

That was probably the deepest thing I had ever said aloud to her, and Ella looked stunned. Then she slumped in her spot on my bed, and admitted, "Okay. I guess you're right…"

I smiled in triumph. Ella then got up, and shuffled around the closet a moment. She pulled out a pair of bright blue converse and threw to me. "Put those on." She ordered. I shrugged and did what she told, even though I wondered how I would fit into Ella's shoes.

Surprisingly, I _did _fit in them. "Um, Ella?" I asked. She was pulling out things for her to wear while I was doing that. "Hmm?" She didn't look behind her at me.

"How is I can fit in your shoes when I'm too years older than you?"

She still didn't look behind her. "Oh, I bought a bigger pair by accident but decided to keep them for you." I made an 'Oh…' face.

Ella grabbed her stuff and went in the bathroom to change. A few moments later, she came out wearing a peach-y-colored shirt that had, "I 3 ?" on it, referencing Taylor Swift's song I Heart Question mark (the only reason I know that song is because Ella talks about Taylor swift _all the time.)_ and white straight-legged jeans. She picked up a purple, peach, and pink scarf off of my dresser and grabbed it around her neck. She had her pink rose earrings in and had on purple-ish-pink sandals.

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**GAH AWKWARD ENDING!**

**But I have to go to beddie-bye :( My mom's making me. **

**Ella and Max's outfit on my profile :)  
**

**SO REVIEW!**

**Fang comes in chapter four xD**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	3. ZOMG!

**OH MY GOD THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! SOO MUCH!**

**I'm getting so much positive feed back :) I really love it. It makes my day better ever time I see that some one favorited, story-alerted (not a word), and/or reviewed. You guys are flippin' fantastic!  
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**ninjastar954 pointed out that I accidentally said Timmy's house and then Tommy instead :\ Well that's because originally it was Tommy's house, but Word said it was incorrect, so I changed it to Timmy (just 'cause I hate those squiggly lines :D) but then it said that TOMMY wasn't incorrect, so I forgot to change it. Sorry :]**

**...that was a weird smile.**

**This chapter is so short! Only 2,010 words :O I hate it. :(**

**But read none the less!  
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***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***

* * *

Ella had her brown and white messenger bag slung over her shoulder, and she had painted her nails purple earlier that day. She got the brush off of my bed and turned towards the mirror, she started brushing through her already-perfectly-fine hair. She finished after a moment and set it down on the dresser. She kept her hair down for once, and then continued to mess with her makeup to make sure it was perfect.

I stood up from my previous position on the floor and took a black hair band off my wrist (I always kept about four on my right wrist just in case. My hair can get really annoying at times.) and threw my hair up in a quick ponytail.

My phone buzzed from my back pocket and I took it out to see.

_I'm almost home. Turning in the neighborhood right now. _Ahh, dad was almost there.

I replied back quickly, _Okay. Ella's almost ready. _ I still didn't trust him, but Mom wanted me to be polite., so I couldn't exactly act Max-ish.

"Hey, Ells? Dad's almost here." I told her, shoving my iPhone back in my pocket and grabbing my North-Face off the hook on the wall next to my bedside table.

She turned around to face me, and looked shocked at something.

Seeing her expression, I asked quickly, "What? What's wrong?" And looked over my shoulder just out of paranoid habit. Ella gestured to me and I frowned.

"You're hair!" She elaborated. "You are _not _about to go meet people wearing something so cute, with you're hair like _that!"_

I raised an eyebrow at her. What did it matter anyways? Do first impressions really count _that _much? I didn't think so, but according to Ella: yes.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, while Ella got the hairbrush out again and made me sit back down on my bed. This time when she did my hair, it didn't hurt as much since most of all the tangles were out of my hair, but unlike last time, she put my hair up in a braid. Surprisingly, it didn't take very long. She then handed me a silver hair-band-type-thing and I put on. It did keep my hair out of the way of my eyes…

Ella got up and went over to her side of the room and rummaged in her jewelry box for a moment before bringing out a pocket-watch necklace. She crawled up behind me on the bed and put it around my neck. I had to hold my braid up so she didn't accidentally get my hair in the tie.

"There," She said, very proudly. "The finishing touches to my master piece are on. Now, we need to go downstairs since dad's probably in the driveway by now." As if on cue, I heard the door downstairs open and then shut again.

Oh, that? That's just another cliché of my life. Nothing big.

Dad yelled up the stairs, "I home and I brought some people I want you two to meet." I raised my eyebrows. I'll admit: I was curious who our new neighbors were, but I wouldn't let _him _know that.

Ella squealed, excited, and dragged me down the stairs by my arm and I tripped multiple times on my own feet.

Yes, I have skill.

"Ella!" I complained. "If you keep doing that, one of these days I'll actually fall down completely, then we'll _both _break our necks!" She ignored me (Tsk, tsk. Typical Ella.), and kept on pulling me around like a rag doll. I was glad when she spotted dad, finally deciding to stop trying to kill me via stairs.

I'm sure you've noticed I love the word 'via.' …No? You haven't? Well, you know now.

Back to the story.

My back stiffened a fraction of an inch (I like to go unnoticeable when it comes to my paranoia, though I'm sure everybody notices at some point), when I saw a woman, a girl about Ella's age, and a boy about my age standing in the living room, chatting away to dad happily.

The woman had blonde, straight-as-a-broom (if that makes sense) blonde hair that was in a loose bun. Her pretty blue eyes sparkled every now and then as she talked, and then they'd light up when she smiled. Around her nose was clad in freckles. She was wearing a white blouse that looked kind of expensive, but not in the "I'm-rich-so-I-bought-something-really-really-fantastic-to-make-you-jealous-of-my-rich-ness," way, more in the "Oh-hello-why-yes-I-do-have-a-well-paid-job-so-I-bought-this-unnoticeably-expensive-clothing" kind of way. She also had on black pencil skirt and black flats.

The girl was nothing like the woman. First off, her skin was a mocha color, where as the woman's was a fair kind that looked like she couldn't go out in the sun for longer than thirty minutes. The girl had dark brown, very frizzy, unruly hair that went down about to her collarbone. She had chocolate brown eyes that went very nicely with her hair, and while they talked, she'd gesture with her hands a lot and her eyes lit up right before she'd nod eagerly at something or someone. She wasn't that tall, more just average, maybe 5'5, 5'6. She was clad in pink and white.

The boy had strawberry-blonde hair, which sort of stuck up in spikes. He was talking to the girl, some of the times not looking like he was listening while the girl rambled on and on and on about whatever it was she was talking about. The boy had blue eyes, not unlike those of the woman's. The two actually looked very similar. The same hair, posture, skin and freckles. His face shape was different and he was pretty tall, where as the lady was more on the short side. He seemed about 6'2, somewhere around there.

I didn't see his eyes though, since he had on black sunglasses. I figured they were the same as the woman's though. The boy was wearing just plain only jeans, and a pretty light t-shirt. Not light, as in, "Whoa, that t-shirt is a really neon yellow!" (Even though the shirt wasn't even yellow…-cough-) but it had a pretty happy-feel to it, like he was just in a good mood.

Wow. All that from a shirt.

I cleared my throat loudly, interrupting them. I really just wanted to get it over with.

They snapped their heads to look at us, seeming to have just noticed our arrival.

"Ah, Maxine, Isabella." What? Why was he so formal all of the sudden? I wished he hadn't said my real name. I hated it. That's why I always loved it when Brandon called me Maximum. I liked that name _much _better than "Maxine." Way too girly.

I tried to smile at dad, but it turned into more of a grimace, which thankfully only Ella noticed. We knew each other a lot better than anyone in that room knew us. She could tell little things like that, and vice versa.

Huh. Would you look at that? We really _were_ sisters.

Anyways, dad and them didn't notice my failed attempt and just smiled back to us. The girl whispered something to the boy before he smiled. Hmm…Wonder why…

After a moment of just standing around awkwardly, dad introduced us. "Oh, yes, sorry. I must've forgotten. Um, Maxine, Isabella, this is Mrs. Anne Walker—" he gestured to the woman he'd been talking to, and she smiled widely at us. "Ignacius Walker, and Monique Walker." He gestured this time to the girl and boy. "Ignacius" smiled at us, truly this time, and greeted with a small wave, "Hey, I'm 'Ignacius' as you heard, but call me Iggy." I nodded at Iggy. "Monique" whispered something to him again, he nodded, and she took a deep breath…

And then started talking.

"Hi! I'm Monique of course but you can call me Nudge I don't know why people call me that since it's such a weird name but I think Iggy came up with even though I'm not really sure but anyways Maxine and Isabella! Those are like, such awesome names! ZOMG! You two are really pretty even though you don't look alike and Maxine I really like your shoe! Isabella's is really pretty too and I love your jeans—Oh my God I saw a pair just like it at the mall the other day when I went with Angel! Angel is this really super nice girl in our neighborhood just a little bit down the road and she and I are, like, best friends even though she's only five turning six but I mean she's just so cute! I don't know why she didn't come I mean we could be such great frien—" She was stopped by a hand, that just so happened to be Iggy's. I muttered a thank you, still in shock from how much she talked. She hadn't even taken a breath that entire time!

I blinked a couple times, and then composed myself. Ella was still in shock though.

"I'm Maxine. Call me that though, and you're dead. I go by Max." I told them. Iggy slowly removed his hand from Nudge's mouth and she smiled a full-blown-out smile at us. Ella finished her shock stage and said, "Oh, hi. I'm Isabella but call me that I won't care. I go by Ella." She mocked me. I scowled at her, not even meaning it, and then we laughed a little.

"So what brings you here?" Iggy asked us. I shrugged. I wasn't really in the mood for a conversation. Let Ella handle it. She's the one who likes opening-up.

"Oh, well, our mom wanted us to get to know our dad a little bit more, since, you know, they're divorced and we never really saw him, so we came to live out here for a year, then we're going back home in Arizona." Gee, thanks, Ella. Why don't you just go off and tell them about everything else too!

I then remembered something. "Um, Ella?" I asked her. She looked at me. "Yeah, what's wrong?" I made a quizzical expression. "Have you seen Ari anywhere? I thought he would've come down by now." She looked confused for a second, eyebrows furrowed, staring intently at the hard wood floor. "Now that I think of it, no, actually I haven't seen him since he first got home." I nodded. It seemed like just a couple minutes before, but it had actually been thirty minutes since we saw Ari. I figured he would've heard all the talking by now and would've come down to see what was going on.

Without saying anything, I rushed up the stairs and I heard Nudge ask Ella who Ari was.

Their voices got quieter as I made my way up to the top of the stairs, until they were just faint muffles, barely audible. Oh, so _that's _why he hadn't come down yet. I was standing at his door and I could barely hear any of it.

I knocked on his door softly, and heard a just-as-soft reply of "Come in."

I opened the door a little so it was only my head and shoulder sticking through. I felt like an intruder when I came up in his room. I still felt that way about just being in the house, so I had that feeling enhanced when I walked into _his _room.

"Hey, Ari." I smiled, a small thing. "Dad has some friends over that we want you to meet." Ari nodded his little head, and got up from playing with his army toys.

I walked down the stairs beside him and I told him about Iggy and Nudge even though he'd meet them any moment. Dang, those stairs were _huge!_

I always had a soft spot for little kids. Ari definitely qualified as a little kid, and I loved him a lot.

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**OH MY FREAK THIS IS WAAYYY TOO SHORT AND BORING! I'M SO SORRY!**

**I really tried :| But I couldn't think of anything to write. I really, really wanted to upload a chapter today, but I kept getting stuck!**

**Don't worry, this dilemma won't change the date of when you get to see Fang xD Aren't I awesome?**

**-cough- Kidding. I know you hate me right now for the sucky chapter :( Oh well.**

**Review please so I might get some inspiration :] (haha, weird smile :])  
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***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**


	4. I Set Fire to Our Bed

**OH MY GOSH, I AM SOOO SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE GONE THIS LONG!**

**I have some legit excuses though!**

**#1: my mom keeps making me babysit, like, 24/7. IT'S ANNOYING.**

**#2: Curse you exam-prep.**

**#3: My keyboard broke. :( But I got a new one now and it's awesome!**

**#4:...yeah, I just didn't have much inspiration. **

**Thanks to all of you who actually still stayed with me! Whoop whoop!**

**DISCLAIMER: No..and no to Kiss With a Fist by Florence + the Machine (love them! Go check them out on youtube or something if you haven't heard of that song xD)  
**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***

* * *

Remember how, earlier, I told you I want to be a famous skate-boarder? Yeah, that?

Well, some of you are probably wondering why I haven't mentioned my baby (my skateboard, for all you crazies out there) and that's because when we were in Arizona, a couple days into summer, my board broke and I don't have the money to get it fixed.

However—I don't think I've mentioned this yet—Jeb does.

See, he's pretty rich. You know, scientist and all. We actually live in a mansion right now, hence the mention of a huge staircase last you saw—or read—of me.

And now you might want to know what happened after I pulled Ari downstairs, huh? Well, to sum it up in a couple sentences, Iggy and Nudge were probably the closest thing I've had to a good friend since the "Melinda incident."

Yeah.

Ella seemed to like Iggy a lot, and more than in just one-way. Of course, I teased her about it for a long time. And Nudge really liked Ella, also. I think they'll be best friends sooner or later.

Most likely sooner.

Iggy was really nice, too. (Crap, I've already used six sentences! There goes the "summing it all up in FEW sentence.") I found out that he was blind, which explained Nudge's constant whispering and the sunglasses on while inside. He told me that he used to be able to see, so he could image most of everything that was around him as long as someone described it really well. Which Nudge did, apparently, since he had an almost flawless map planned out of the living room/den before he left. I know, I thought it was amazing, too.

His hearing was better than most people since he was blind (duh) so I didn't plan on sneaking up on him any time soon.

I think him and I could get along, but if he dates Ella and then breaks her heart, I will personally make sure his death is painful and very, very slow.

Nudge said that she had to baby-sit Gazzy and Angel all the time, so if I wanted, I could help out. I replied with just a shrug. I really didn't care that much either way.

Ari seemed upset that Angel and Gazzy didn't come, since Angel was his age and Gazzy was eight.

Back to the present, though.

I wasn't in the mood for running for some strange, strange reason, so I settled on just taking a walk along the neighborhood. You know, get used to it.

My iPhone was dead and I didn't have time to go on a walk after it had charged if I wanted to go out while it was light. So I just had to plug it while I was gone, and hope nothing happened while I was out.

For lack of noise and things to do, I started talking to myself quietly. I know, it sounds ludicrous, but I really didn't have anything to do. Like that one time, I was out and started singing, and then I met Charlotte because of it.

Weird things really do happen to strange people.

In all my soliloquy, I didn't noticed someone was behind me, until I heard a small and faint, "Hello."

I jumped and turned around, already in fighting stance. I did that a lot when I was scared or startled. I know, I was paranoid. Give me a break!

I wasn't exactly expecting too see a little girl, about five or six, with curly, blonde hair that surround her head like a halo, and baby blue eyes. I relaxed visibly and bent down to eyelevel with the little girl.

"Hi." I said back. She smiled at me, one of her front teeth missing. "I'm Angel." She told me, happily. I smiled this time, I couldn't help it! This little girl was too cute. She definitely looked like a little angel, too. Her name suited her perfectly.

Why did that name sound familiar though? I'd never met an Angel before.

"I'm Max." I thought I should be polite. She grinned again, and I stood up. She had to tilt her head back a little to look at me. She only came up to about mid-thigh on me, maybe my waist. "You're hair is pretty." She told me and I smiled again. _Oh, my God, she's so cute! _

Well…that was very…un-Max-ish, we'll say for lack of better words. I can't believe this, I manage to go about two years without making a single friend (except Ella, but come on, she's my sister!) and now this little girl comes along and I automatically love her.

Ah, California. How you manage to do that, I'll never know.

Angel's blue eyes glanced at the near-by park (did I mention I was walking up to a park when I saw Angel? No? Well, now you know I was) and she pointed to the swing-set. She tugged on my hand, and gently pulled me towards it. "Come play with me!" I laughed a little at her persistence, but followed nonetheless.

Gracious, how did this happen? Nudge and Iggy were getting close to being a, "semi-friend" and now this? God, people in California seem a lot nicer than in Arizona. I wished I had come earlier!

She hopped up on one of the old swings, and it creaked as I pushed her back and forth, gingerly. What? You thought I'd let my guard down _that _easy? Heck, no.

I took a moment to let my mind wander. I thought for a minute about her name.

Angel…. hmm…where had I…

Oh! Nudge said she baby-sat a girl in our neighborhood named Angel.

Well, face palm.

Gosh, I'm clueless.

"You know Nudge?" I blurted out after my previous thoughts. She looked up at me, but she had to turn her head around almost all the way so she rotated her body too. Angel nodded at me. "Nudge is really nice. She baby-sits me and Gazzy sometimes, when mommy and daddy are out at work, or something like that. She let me come to the mall with her once. I had never been there until she took me. I like Nudge." I simply just nodded. Nudge had been talking about going to the mall with Angel none-stop when she came over, and Iggy had to clamp his hand down on Nudge's mouth multiple times so she would stop talking.

We just continued our conversation, really about anything and everything, while I pushed her back and forth. The sun started to set, so I thought it was time to go home.

As we approached my house, I turned to her. "Hey, Angel?" I asked her, while we walked down the street. She looked up at me, curious. "Do you want me to walk you home, or will you be okay on your own?"

She shook her head. "Mommy lets me walk home on my own because she says that since our house is right across the street, and I'm a big girl, it's okay." She nodded her head proudly and beamed. I smiled at her and told her that she should be getting home soon then. But I made sure to watch her cross the street and get inside safely before I headed back on my own way.

**_YO-HEY. THE PAGE BREAK (YOU KNOW, THE AWKWARD ONE?) IS BACK! WAHOO!_**

"Dad!" I yelled, closing the front door gently behind me, "I'm back from the park!"

I heard a some-what muffled reply from the living room that sounded something like, "Okay, Max, we're going out to dinner tonight!" I didn't bother asking to make sure that was what he said, since I honestly couldn't care less.

I kicked off my shoes (after un-tying them, of course.) and ran up the long stairway, planning to flop down on my nice, soft bed and sleep for a couple hours.

But, of course, Ella decided she would ambush me on that particular day.

I hated her right then.

"CRAP!" I shouted, surprised. She had been behind me and I hadn't known it, so obviously I spazzed out. She started laughing and I just glared at her, waiting for her to stop laughing at my outburst.

Once her laughter had turned into slight giggles, and after a very long time of just standing there, glaring, I turned the glare a little bit higher up, two or three notches. And, yes, there _is _a mental Glare-o-meter in my head. Deal with it.

"Ella…" I growled. In case some of you didn't figure this out, I am not very fond of surprises. But whatever. "_Why _did you ambush me, again?" She managed to stop laughing all the way.

"I wanted to tell you that mom called while you were gone." I nodded at her and didn't ask anything, even though I was still wondering why that was a reason to scare me.

**_WOW, I JUST REALIZED THAT MOST OF THIS CHAPTER IS A FILLER…GRRR…_**

The next morning was the first day of school, and I admit: I was kind of nervous.

Now, I wasn't jumping-up-and-down-and-sweating-buckets-nervous, but more of a I-really-really-really-do-not-want-to-do-anything-even-rometly-_close-_to-this-nervous.

Ella turned her Bambi eyes on me (AGAIN!) so I had to let her pick out my outfit and do my hair (though I _refused _to wear make-up).

The outfit she picked out for me consisted of a black, v-neck blouse, with white ruffles along the top of the shirt and the bottom of it. It was short sleeved, which I was glad for.

I wore, along with that, dark-wash, skinny jeans. I picked out my own shoes, which were just my most trusted ones: my black, high-tops, All Star converse.

My long, blonde hair was just straightened down my back, my bangs pulled back out of my face by a black flower clip.

I honestly didn't mind the outfit. It was okay. I just didn't like how…_girly _(for lack of better words) it was.

Ella just wore her pink, short-sleeved blouse, the one with the ruffles going down the front (I know, I'm very descriptive, right?), and white shorts, about down to her knees. Her perfectly pedicure-feet were clad in purple sandals. Ella's beautiful, short; brown hair was pulled up in a tight, high ponytail. For make-up, she only had on light-gray eye shadow, a little bit of mascara and eyeliner, and a thin line of lip-gloss.

Ari left for school after us, so he wasn't awake when we left, and mother took us to school instead of us riding the bus. Her work was close to the school, anyway.

The day was pretty uneventful. We went to the office, got out schedule, met up with Iggy and Nudge, went to class, blah, blah, blah, all that normal, cliché stuff.

There's really only a few events that went on that I want to tell you all about.

The first part: my first encounter with a slut.

The second: my first encounter with my soon-to-be rather trust-worthy friend. (Yeah, I use words like "trust-worthy" now. Deal with it.)

And the third: my first encounter with my soon-to-be _best_ friend, also Iggy's best friend.

So let me give you a flashback to explain it…

**FLASHBACK:**

"I hit you once, you hit me back, I gave a kick, you gave a slap, you smashed a plate over my head, and I set fire to our bed..." _I sang Kiss With a Fist by Florence and the Machine under my breath to myself, like the amazing person I am. After endless whiles of wandering around aimlessly, locker number in hand, I came up to what I assumed to be my locker._

…_Only to see a group of girls all huddled around it, whispering to themselves, every now and then shooting glances at boys and then proceeding to burst out in fits of giggles. _

_Gosh, the clichés that goes on in the world…_

_I rolled my eyes. I knew the type of girls they were. All of them were wearing the same brand of shirt: Abercrombie and Fitch, and all were wearing super-small mini-skirts and some sort of fancy shoe that I couldn't name. More than half had an abundance of make-up smeared across their faces. _

_I'll admit, some of them were actually really pretty, but others were just…no. _

_They continued to whisper, not noticing me standing awkwardly a few feet away. I sighed, finally unable to stand it anymore. _

_I marched up to one of the girls and simply said; "Move, please," as politely as I possibly could. I didn't need any enemies, especially on my first day at the school. _

_The girl glared at me. She had curly, flaming red hair that hung around her shoulders, and bright green eyes lined in eyeliner and mascara. A ring of freckles surrounded her button-like nose. I'll admit: she was one of the pretty ones, but that doesn't mean I liked her. _

_She stuck her nose up in the air and glared harder. Ha, it'd take a lot more than _that _to scare me. Her attempts to intimidate me were futile. _

"_Listen, newbie," She told her, roughly. I raised an eyebrow. How exactly did she know I was a new? She couldn't have possibly known everyone in the school; the thing was _enormous! _"I'm the Queen Bee here, so you can't tell me what to do," she continued, ignoring my puzzled look. I shrugged, glared back, then pointed to the locker behind her. _

"_You're standing in front of my locker, and I need to put my stuff away." I said as monotonous as ever. _

_She scowled and didn't move. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and simply shoved past her and to my locker. It's not my fault she wouldn't move!_

_You know what? I am getting tired of just saying "she." So I'm going to call her…"The Redheaded Wonder"! Yeah. That'll work. _

_The RHW stood there, gaping at me, sort of resembling a fish. I smirked, opened my locker, and shoved everything in my bag into my new locker. _

**NEXT ONE:**

_I groaned in my head. School dragged on soooo much! It was like time wasn't even passing! _

_I was in English class—fourth period—and I was incredibly bored. I already knew more than half the stuff that we were talking about. Back at my old school, we would so far ahead that this would seem like pre-k stuff to you. _

_I stared at the clock, as if it would make it speed up time. _

_No such luck. It stayed the same. _

11:36…. _I stared harder. _Hurry up!

11:37… _Whoop, whoop! The clock didn't, like, just stop working! _

11:38…. _The teacher is _still _droning on and on and on…Sigh. _

11:39….Come on! Just ONE MORE MINUTE_! Gracious, my head is going to explode._

_And, finally…._ 11: 40! _Yes, it was time for lunch! Whoop, whoop, I made it through fourth period! _

_Most of everybody in the class shot out of their seats and ran to the door before the teacher finished her speech. All accept me, and this one other girl. _

_She seemed to be having trouble with her things, since there was quite a lot of it. Trying to shuffle everything into the right position so she could care it easily, it looked hard. So I decided to be nice and help her. _

_The girl had brown, straight-as-a-broom hair that was cut about to her collarbone in layers. She was thin, not anorexic thin, but just like she played a lot of sports. More papers fell out of her hands. She cursed under her breath and bent down to pick it up. I couldn't see her eyes, but I knew she was wearing rectangular glasses. The girl didn't seem to be one of the sluts like I had seen before. She seemed sort of like one of those quiet girls who are sky around people they don't know/don't like, but really fun around their friends. Ella was like that. _

_Also, she wasn't strutting around in small skirts and tight shirts, so I figured we could probably get along well enough. _

_I bent down, too. Looking surprised, she accepted a sheet of music I handed to her. I shrugged at her puzzled expression and stood up. She grabbed my out-stretched hand and stood up with me. _

"_Thanks," she told me quietly, smiling. I smiled too. "You're welcome. I'm Max, by the way." I stuck out my hand for her to shake, which she did. "Jennifer Joy—I know, what were my parents _thinking? —_But everyone calls me J.J." _

**LAST BUT NOT LEAST:**

_Lunch. Wonderfully disgusting lunch. _

_While the school didn't have very good food, I was glad to finally be out of class and away from the torture. _

_Once inside the cafeteria, I grabbed a red (cliché) lunch tray and made my way through the line. I didn't see Ella, Nudge, Iggy, or J.J, and I was slightly disappointed. But, oh well. C'est la vie._

_I grabbed everything that actually looked edible, which wasn't much, and a water bottle. I scanned the cafeteria one more time, just in case. _

_Ah, what do you know! There was Nudge, waving frantically at me, grinning like the Cheshire cat. I grinned back and made my way over there. _

_I noted that the whole gang was there. Ella, Nudge, Iggy, and J.J. There were a couple other people sitting at the table, too, whom I did not recognize. _

"_Hey, you guys," I greeted, taking a seat next to Ella. I still wasn't accustom to the whole "friend" thing, so my greeting was sort of awkward. I had to deal with it, it wasn't _their _problem. _

_They all said their greetings in union. Save one guy, who just didn't look like the talk-y type of person. _

_There were five I didn't know in total. One girl with black, brown-streaked hair and gray eyes, another girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. One guy had brown hair, a warm smile, and chocolate eye (he was kind of cute.) Another with blonde hair and crystal-blue eyes (he was super good-looking…just thought you ought to know), and the last with black hair…and I don't know what eyes. (Ella would call him "hot" and I don't really disagree…[insert awkward pause here]) I couldn't see them that well. Most of his hair covered them and I would only have been able to see them—_really _see them, I mean—if I had been way up in his personal space. Can you spell "awkward?" _

"_Uh, Nudge?" I cut her off, mid-rant. She had been going on about some teacher or something and I hadn't been listening at all. "You, uh, gonna introduce me to anyone?" She smiled and did a face palm. "Oh, yeah, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot!" _

_Ella jerked in, "Yeah, we know, please get on with the intro, if you don't mind." _

_I think we were all glad she said that. _

"_Okay, well, this is Mallory—"she pointed to the girl with blonde hair, who was in the middle of eating her spaghetti-type-thing. Mallory swallowed then gave a small wave. "Hannah—" she pointed to the black haired girl, who, like Mallory, waved at me. "Dylan is right there." Nudge pointed to the really good-looking guy. He smiled warmly and muttered a hello. I nodded, shot him a small smile, and then drank some water from my bottle. "Sam—" the brown-haired guy, "and Fang." _

_Too which I nearly did a spit-take at. _

_But I caught myself and started choking instead._

_Joy. _

"_Max, Max! OMG, this isn't good!" Nudge said and she started slapping my back while I coughed. Iggy turned in my general direction, with an amused glint in his eyes. _

_After a moment, I calmed down and stopped choking. Then proceeded to laugh my head off. _

_Ella acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. To her it probably was. She was used to my weird behavior. _

_Although, the rest of them weren't, so they kept asking me what was wrong, and I just shook my head and swallowed. _

_Finally, after a little bit, it was okay for me to speak. "Why did you choke, Max? Was it because I—" Iggy cut Nudge off with a hand clamped on her mouth. "Yeah, what happened?" Dylan looked even cuter when worried. _

"_Just…" I started, but then thought differently about it. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and told them instead, "Never mind. It's nothing."_

_But it _wasn't _anything. When I heard that name, I got a serious case of déjà vu. It kind of…scared me? _

_I don't know. But I did know that I had seen him—and heard that name—before._

* * *

**WHOA, AND THE PLOT THICKENS!**

**I seriously don't know where I'm going with this right now...*sigh* Cursed brothern!**

**Haha, inside thing xD**

**So, PLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEE REVIEW! *Bambi eyes!***

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	5. AN SUPER IMPORTANT

**Okay, so, despite the fact that I swore to myself that I wouldn't do any A/Ns for this Fanfic, I utterly lied to myself and so…here I am.  
**Iggy:** No duh.**

**Me: Shut up. **

***deep breath* **

**I need help.**

Iggy:** snickers**

**Me: punches Iggy**

**I'm so deep in right now. The last chapter, the ending was all mysterious-like, but I have NO CLUE as to where I'm going from there. Originally, Max choked because she was surprised at his name. Then she was laughing because, seriously, what kind of name is Fang? (To which Iggy snickered, (AGAIN,) to which I punched him, (AGAIN.))**

**But then I changed it, like, halfway through. I don't know WHY I kept that, since I was trying to stick with the realistic-fiction theme I had going on. **

Iggy:** Not working out too well…**

**Anyways, I wanted to know if you all would like me to keep that, and make the story sci-fi—or change it back to the original and keep the realistic-drift I had goin' on. **

**So, yeah…**

**Please review telling me what you think! I would love to know what my amazing readers think of that!**

Iggy: **Flattery gets you everywhere. **

**Me: Yes, yes it does. xD **

**(LOGO TIME!)**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	6. Wasted Years, Wasted Gain

**So, due to the amount of reviews telling me to keep the whole sci-fi thing, I'm keepin' it! **

**I found a way to still keep it really realistic, and yet have the whole science fiction twist in it.  
**

**And, let me just say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I didn't think I'd get _that _many reviews, and all but in..what...three days? You guys rock, you know that? And a _special _thanks to Axe09! Thank you, Axe09, for giving me those tips!**

**Anyhoo, on ward! (Wow, that's a lot of exclamation points :\) :] Weird smile again.**

**DISCLAIMER: I no own Trading Yesterday, McFly, Natalie Merchant, or Maximum Ride!  
**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*

* * *

**

_I ran and ran and ran and ran as fast as my legs would take me. Despite how I was pushing myself almost completely over the limit, the wolves were still gaining up on me—only about ten—maybe fifteen—feet behind me. _

_But I kept running. I wouldn't stop until I knew I had to. _

_The trees past by me in a blur, jumbled together, ridden of their details. My bare feet slapped hard ground, hitting everything, including rocks and sticks, but I ignored the sharp pain that shot through my foot with almost every step. _

_The crack of autumn leaves behind me told me they were still there—not that I had ever doubted they were for a millisecond. Nope. _

_My senses were on hyper drive once again, picking up each and every sound. Their paws hitting the ground would be inaudible to any normal person, but I wasn't a normal person, so they sounded almost like elephants trumpeting around. Every crackle of a leave, every snap of a twig, sent me on edge. My legs seemed to be pumping on their own accord, and I was barely aware of it, nor how my legs ached from all the running. Nothing was real...Nothing actually mattered, but to _get away! _  
_

_I came to a sudden halt, feet sliding in the dry, rain-deprived ground.  
_

_There, right ahead, they stood, baring their teeth at me, growling, strolling closer and closer and closer, like they had all the time in the world. Maybe they did. They'd enjoy my death, and would want it as slow as possible. _

_The Wolves. _

_Or, at least, that's what _I _called them._

_The "official" name was an Eraser, but I prefer Wolves. They were supposed to be a human/wolf-hybrid, like werewolves, but they ended up more wolf, with human qualities such as: talking, human eyes, and human intelligence. Other then that, they're regular wolves.  
_

_I stole a fleeting glance behind me, to see the other pack had already caught up. I turned in a full circle to face them, and then back around again to the others, trying to keep my eyes on both of them. It wasn't working at all. _

_I was so deep in. _

_Fear overtook almost any other emotion that I had left in me, and I got an adrenaline rush, one bigger than ever before. I would've fled again, but common sense overtook my side of judgment, so I stayed. If I had run, I would've been ripped to shreds for sure. But, if I stayed, I'd be...ripped to shreds also. Great. _

_Subconsciously, I took a couple of steps back, and then stopped, remembering that there were wild wolves behind me, too. _

_They all prowled closer in union, as if planned. My eyes were wide. My breath quickened. Oh, my gosh! So many of them, way too close! I felt like I couldn't breathe. The sky was closing in on me, my eyesight was getting blurry, and so I forced myself to stay conscious. _

_I stepped back once more, only to be pressed back up against a tree I hadn't realized was there until I felt my back hit it. I glanced at it and then turned back to all the Wolves near me. _

_"Why?" I spoke up, my voice hoarse and scratched. I hadn't used it in a long time, so it wasn't any question as to why it was like that. Anger overtook Fear then, slowly taking Fear's place as what fueled me. I took a shaky breath. "What did I do to deserve this?"_

_I never actually expected an answer. No one ever got one, let alone me, despite my father's place. _

_But, none-the-less, one of them smiled cruelly at me before answering my nearly rhetorical question. _

_One, seemingly less-cruel, sympathizing Wolf told me, "You don't. You're just here."

* * *

_

I woke up gasping for air.

My alarm clock broke within the first couple of days of having school (*cough* me murdering it *cough*), so I had to check my watch. 6:54. Good. I didn't miss the bus. The bus came at 7:15, while school started at 7:20.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed and shifted some of my weight off the mattress. I didn't get up and get ready, though. I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths, trying to rid myself of the dream.

I hadn't had a dream like that in…what…four years? It scared me then just as much as when I was eleven.

God…those Wolves were so…so...I can't even think of an adjective.

I sighed. I needed to just stop thinking about it. Thinking about it wouldn't help me in any way.

It would be my second week going to my new school. I still didn't have any official friends, despite the fact that Nudge, Iggy, Ella, Fang, J.J, Sam, Dylan, and I all ate lunch together. I found out that Mallory was Sam's girlfriend, and she was really only there that day because Sam made her. Mallory had dragged Hannah along with her.

Fang and Iggy and I got along great. I mean, I was still as awkward as the first day, after never having been around so many people all the time.

I didn't particularly like being in big groups, even though ours (I guess it's "ours") wasn't all that big. But when you added Mallory, Hannah, Angel, Gazzy, (both of whom I'd babysat once already) and Ari? It was pretty darn big. I'm ashamed to tell you that I was happy they weren't with us all day.

Hey, excuse me for being claustrophobic!

I didn't talk much (except around the family), but when it was just, for example, Iggy and I, I preferred talking then, for some reason. I only talked if there was one person around. If it was Fang, I'd try to strike up a conversation (usually failing miserably) and be nice. Mostly, though, I didn't succeed. Iggy and J.J were easier to talk to...

I could almost forget about that weird déjà vu feeling in the pit of my stomach I get when ever I was near Fang, but not completely, since he was around most of the time. The majority of the day, though, I just ignored it, and tried to get passed the eerie feeling. Better to do that than to worry about it 24/7, right?

Dad was as—dare I say it—_nice _as a dad could get. Mom still called us every night, and we still told her everything, and vice versa.

Ari and Gazzy had easily become best friends by the first two days, both being around the same age. I think Ari had a little crush on Angel –which I thought was adorable—even though I knew he wouldn't ever admit it out loud, let alone to _me_.

I stood up, very slowly. My legs ached like I had pulled a muscle which was...strange. I hadn't been doing anything muscle-pulling worthy the day before, since Mondays were often my lazy-days. How could I have pulled a muscle sitting on the couch watching my _Harry Potter_ marathon or reading_ The Hunger Games_ with a bag of chips for company?

I shrugged it off anyway, and walked/limped towards the mirror on the back of Ella and I's door. I hadn't noticed earlier, but Ella was already awake, probably downstairs, since her bed was empty.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stretched. I cracked my knuckles, wrist, feet, and hands. My daily routine for when I wake up.

I had finally gotten my skateboard back from the shop, but it was in the garage. I was extra tired when I woke up, and guessed I wouldn't have enough energy to ride it to school, so I decided to just take the bus.

I quickly shuffled through our (gigantic) dresser that Ella and I shared (We found out within the first day that the dresser-closet compromise wouldn't work, so we divided the dresser and closet up equally), and fished out a red t-shirt and some jeans. They're all the rage now, didn't you know that?

I slipped on my Nike's shoes (the ones I got for Christmas from Ella last year) and ran a brush through my knotted hair. Ella had taken the liberty to make me do my hair everyday, so it didn't get tangled as it was before she did my hair on the day we met Nudge and Iggy.

I quickly threw it in a ponytail, and headed down the stairs for a short breakfast of Lucky Charms. Yum!

Ari still asleep, Ella at the table, and dad sitting next to her, I slipped in my "usual" spot at the kitchen table.

I wolfed down all my cereal pretty quick, too tired to talk to anyone, and then ran back up stairs to brush my teeth and grab my bag.

Mornings were pretty quick for me. Wake, clothes, hair, shoes, eat, teeth, bag, leave. That's the order things go in. No more, no less. I hadn't done anything different for that whole week and a day (it was Tuesday) and I planned to keep it the same.

In case you haven't noticed, I didn't like change. At all. I'll admit—it scared me. Change usually meant something bad. I actually only had one or two experience with "change" that ended out well: Coming to live with dad (yes, I liked it there by then, believe it or not), and meeting my soon-to-be little group.

Not much.

So anyways, I did my normal routine, and ran out to the driveway right as it pulled up. Dad wanted to give Ella a ride to school, along with Ari, once he had to go.

I quickly shuffled onto the bus, still limping, and muttered a "'Mornin'" to our bus driver, who replied with the same thing back. I tried to walk with a sense of pride in my step (whatever that means...) and hold my head high, but it didn't really work out too well. Some guys eyed me, and I glared straight back at them. Most flinched away.

Ha! Yeah, you better, pig!

-Cough- Anyways.

I took my seat-near the back, sort of the middle-ish-and pulled my iPhone from my backpack, stuffing the ear-buds in my ears.

I hummed softly to myself my favorite lines of "Shattered" by Trading Yesterday, singing along with my iPod/my iPhone/music in my head.

"All this time spent in vain   
Wast of years   
Wasted gain   
All is lost   
Hope remains   
And this war's not over"

The song had just went off, when we arrived at Fang's house. In the short week-and-one-day I had gone to the school, I had found out a couple of things either _about _him, or when _around _him:

1.) Fang didn't talk much—like, at all.

2.)Don't start the conversation often—especially with Fang—because it would always end in awkward silence or just…_something _to embarrass me and remind me (yet again) that I hadn't ever had a real friend.

3.) He mostly talked by gestures, all simple. A nod of his head, eyebrows raised in a silent question, a small quirk of the edge of his lips-that kind of thing.

4.) Fang didn't show much emotion. Sometimes, I'd see a few quirks in his armor, but not very often.

He got on, and while he was walking towards the back, our eyes locked (brown-on-black) and I _swear _I stopped breathing.

...

Okay, so, maybe that was too girly and too over-the-top, but it sure felt like it! That _always _happened when I locked eyes with said person-I just couldn't stop staring!

So...more likely I forgot how to breath, but oh well! I feel too girly and like Nudge saying any of that, so ignore all of that early passage.

Wait, let's redo:

The song had just went off, when we arrived at Fang's house. He got on, and while he was walking towards the back, our eyes locked and I held his gaze, like a staring contest.

That works!

...

Back to it.

Like he has every other day, he sat down next to me on the seat. I offered him a small smile and a soft hello, followed by an even _softer _hey, and a nod in my direction.

I sighed-a barely audible sound-and went back to staring out the window, listening to McFly.

* * *

We approached the school building and I ripped out my ear-buds that had been previously switched to the song "Thick as Thieves" by Natalie Merchant. I stuffed my iPhone in my pocket, my headphones in my bag, and trudged off the bus.

I almost always had someone with me at school, since the school still wasn't very familiar to me, and I'd always like to be near someone I knew. The only problem with this was: usually it wasn't Ella, which more than most of the times caused awkward silences and awkward comments made by moi.

I hated it. You have no idea.

Fang and I walked to homeroom in silence. I hadn't been able to find Ella or Iggy or anyone else when I scanned the place, so it was just us. Did I mention Fang's in my homeroom, 1st period, and 4th period? No? Well, now I have.

So, yes, we walked in painful silence. I hadn't completely shaken off the dream I had and the awkward situation wasn't helping...

My leg was hurting even more by then-each step I took shot an abundance of pain through my leg. I just wanted it to freaking _stop. _

Plus, the freaking wolf images that kept popping up in my head weren't really make things any more comfortable for me!

I grimaced. Almost to homeroom…a couple more minutes...Come on!

The images were back, _ah-gain_. They were far stronger, more vivid, than before. I winced and shut my eyes tight, like that would help block out the visions more.

It didn't work.

My head started hurting, too, to make matters even _worse. _God, what was happening? It was like a massive explosion inside my brain! I'd never had anything like that before!

I stopped my pace, involuntarily forgetting that Fang was there beside me, and I was at school. I clutched my head and shut my eyes tighter. The images were getting bigger, more life-like, more gruesome...

Then, the visions changed. It wasn't just my dream anymore—no, it was much more than just that. I saw kids—no older than five—trapped inside dog cages, looking incredibly lost and alone. Like the world was against them.

Adults in white lab coats stood off to the side, some holding syringes in their hands, others holding clipboards, and the rest just watching as the kids whither.

Literally. A couple groans, one girl started screaming bloody murder. After that, more do.

Then it switches. A vision of a Wolf tearing into something-more thank likely a person, considering the sounds they made.

It switched yet again. Codes, numbers, and images of buildings—they all passed by me in a flurry.

As quickly as it started, it was over.

* * *

I "woke up" (I guess you could call it that) laying on something sort of stiff, but also sort of comfortable. It was a huge change from when I was walking down the hallway, so I was pretty darn confused. I felt the presence of someone next to me, and I vaguely remember someone saying something. I could just detect that it was a boy's voice.

I felt like vomiting, throwing up all my breakfast, but I didn't. I might look…weak, we'll say. Plus, I didn't have the energy to even open my eyes.

My senses suddenly went on hyper drive like they were in the dream—I could hear each and every sound. No one was walking. A bell went off in the distance, the boy's voice said something along the lines of: "Max, are you alright?" or something or another. I could tell it was Fang's voice who had said that and my curiosity suddenly sky-rocketed. What was he doing and saying, exactly? Where were we? What was going on?

Slowly (very, _very _slowly), I opened my eyes.

Only to quickly shut them because of the bright lights directly above my head.

After a moment, I opened them again and waited for them to adjust. Once done, I saw that I was laying, on my back, in some white-clad room, Fang and Ella hovering over me.

I groaned and rubbed my temple. I had a _major _headache. "Wha' goin' on?" I asked, groggily. Ella bit her lip and neither of them said anything. I tried sitting up, but then laid back down due to how incredible the pain of it was. My entire _body _felt like it was catching on fire.

"Well, you see, Max…" Ella tried explaining. She chewed on her bottom lip, glanced at Fang, then back at me. "I was walking on my way to homeroom when I saw you and Fang down the hallway. I started coming towards you, but then you just, like, stopped, and started moaning. After a moment, Fang kept asking if you were all right, but you didn't reply and the bell rang. " She took a moment to pause. I tried getting up again, but I only ended up propped there on my elbow.

"I was going to just head off to class, thinking you were okay, but you started…screaming something. Some words. I don't know. It wasn't really _screaming, _more as saying something loudly.

"After that, you just…_collapsed. _We rushed you off to the nurse…and here we are."

I stared at Ella in disbelief. How could I have…been _screaming _when I didn't have any memory of the last, what, ten minutes? And why hadn't anyone else noticed?

Or maybe they did…

I wasn't sure.

I looked at Fang and he looked right back at me. To anyone else, he would've looked impassive, but my sense were still on hyper drive, and I could detect the _slightest _furrow in his eyebrows, telling me he was worried. Good.

I groaned when I then discovered the fact I still had a huge headache, and lied down on my back, staring up at the blank ceiling like it held the meaning of life. (Which, by the way, it didn't.)

"So," I started off with. "You're tellin' me tha' I passed ou' in the middle of da hal'wa and no one noti'ed?" I asked her, my voice still rough and scratched. I then noticed that my throat was as dry as sand paper.

They both nodded. I sighed and turned my head to face them instead of the ceiling. "Jus' greaaa'!" I rolled my eyes. Even though on the outside I acted like I was just annoyed, on the inside I was having a miniature spazz attack. Why did I pass out again? And what was up with the images and what appeared to be codes? Nothing was fitting together anymore!

A woman around forty, who I presumed to be the nurse, rushed in and shooed both Fang and Ella. She told them something in a hushed tone that I couldn't hear, and they left, Ella somewhat reluctantly, Fang back to impassive (shocker).

I don't remember much after that. I remember passing out after taking some sort of medicine, and the nurse telling me I could go home in a little bit.

After that, it's blank.

* * *

**Gaaaaaaah, that's dramatic. So…yeah.**

**That was only 3, 725 words :( Oh well!**

**Some of you may be wondering what the expression, "I'm so deep in" came from, and what it means. I don't remember _where _I heard that, or if I even heard that, but the way I use it means that they're in biiiigg trouble :) **

**And some of my readers might have figured out a pattern in this story by now-if you did, please review telling me what you think it is! **

**Thanks you guys!**

**Peace! ****:]**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	7. She can't be!

**This is sort of a short chappie. Oh well. **

**The reason I didn't update sooner was because I was on vacation, and we didn't have internet, so I couldn't upload anything.**

**Far warning: This chapter is kind of sad at the end. And there's some Max+Fang action goin' on in here, for all you FAX lovers.  
**

DISCLAIMER: **I no own MR, Grenade by who-ever-wrote-that-song (I seriously can't remember the Artist's name :\) or Shattered by Trading Yesterday, which I mention AH-GAIN. **

**Peace out, yo!**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**

* * *

"Max!" Ella screeched. "Stop it! I'm gonna freeze!"

But I only cackled over the radio (which was blasting "Grenade" by what's-his-face) and continued to spray her with the hose. "See? This is what you get for that time back in Arizona for ratting me out to mom!" I yelled over the water blasting at her.

I stopped after a moment of her trying to hide behind Iggy (failing miserably, might I add) and attempting to stop the flow of water with her hands (still failing miserably). Iggy didn't look to happy about being her human shield. Through his dripping hair, he glared at Ella, then at me.

I quickly shut the hose off, dropped the handle, and ran inside the house as fast as possible, slamming the door shut behind me.

I leaned up against the door and locked it, just to make sure she didn't come in. There was a long moment of Ella banging on the door and laughter coming from inside the house (me) and outside the house (everyone else-minus Fang. No, he doesn't _laugh. _He _chuckles_.) I ran to the back door and locked that, just in case Ella decided to think over her fury and come around to the patio.

I could still hear her yelling bloody murder at me about her hair and makeup, but I just ignored it, and continued to laugh my butt off. In the process of getting Ella, I got soaked, too. I ignored that too, though, and enjoyed my moment of victory.

You're probably wondering what was going on. Well, dad's car needed washing, so Ella offered for us to go out and wash it. I, being Max, didn't want to have anything to do with it. But what did Ella do? She used my only weakness against me. Yes, that's right. Bambi eyes.

Sigh.

And then Ella decided that we just _had _to invite everyone over. Iggy, Fang, Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy all came. J.J, Sam, and Dylan were all too busy, and Ari wanted Angel and Gazzy over.

So here we are.

Wait…you probably want to know what happened after I got home from the nurse. Well, long story short, I spent the rest of the week sick and with a major headache, and now, Saturday, was the first day since Tuesday I got to see anyone outside of Ella, Dad, and Ari. Even if I wouldn't ever admit it, I was kind of glad that Ella invited them over. Gave me someone to laugh with at least. Made things less uncomfortable.

Well, not right _now, _since I had ran up the stairs and into my room, collapsing on my bed, laughing my butt of again. I was getting the bedsheets smothered in water, but I really didn't care, still basking in my sweet, sweet victory (as I said earlier).

After a couple of minutes of laughing like a maniac, I went downstairs and out into the driveway where the car still sat, completely covered in soap.

Ella, in all her sopping-wet glory, sat on the bench on the porch, glaring at everyone, since they were still laughing. I smirked. Revenge is sooooo delicious!

Back in Arizona, when I was still a friend of Melinda's, I snuck out once to go to a party at her house when mom clearly said no. Ella caught me coming back in late at night and I made her swear she wouldn't tell mom.

Then, a little bit later that week, Ella tried to get me to let her give me a makeover and I, of course, refused. So she told mom I snuck out the other night as payback, thus getting me grounded for a month. I was so freaking angry at her!

Nudge came up to me, normally frizzy hair in a high ponytail, jean-shorts slightly damp. As usual, she started babbling. "Oh my gosh what happened in Arizona? Like did Ella do something to you or like what did she do? Oh my god when I was first adopted into my family Iggy came up to me and he said "Now, we—"

Fang smirked at me (to which my heart replied with a little flutter. Gag.), and cut her off by clapping his hand over her mouth (again, that was pretty normal). Iggy clapped his hands together, saying way too perkily, "Okay, let's go get this car done and then have some lunch!"

I gave a short laugh at their strange, _strange _family relationship, and nodded my head, still smiling.

**_Woops, I forgot about the awkward pause last chapter :| But it's back now! Yay!_**

"DAD!" I yelled up the stairs. He was in his office working, like normal. He told me that he had some sort of assignment to finish soon for work, so I had been trying not to disturb him while we did his car.

The Flock (that's what they called themselves. I didn't understand why for a while) was in the kitchen, fixing lunch for themselves. Ella proposed for them to stay the night, and they all called their parents to ask if they could. Everyone could come, fortunately. I was sort of..._happy _that they were.

"DAD! SOME…FRIENDS ARE STAYING THE NIGHT, IS THAT OKAY?" I called again. No answer. "DAD?" This was getting weird. More than half the time, he answered when I called him. What?

I cautiously made my way up the stairs. Everyone else was still chatting away, all ignoring me, except I felt _one _pair of eyes on the back of my head. I glanced quickly behind me to see Fang staring at me. I tried hiding the light blush tinting my cheeks (dude, seriously? I _never _blush!), and turned back around. I raised an eyebrow at him, returning to my normal Max-attitude. Why was he staring again?

Then I remembered something weird was going on with dad and made my way up the stairs again.

"Dad?" I called once more. Still no answer.

I turned a corner in the long hallway and peered into dad's office.

I wasn't used to being in there. Most of the time I just stayed on my side of the house and a lot of times tried to avoid him. Needless to say, it was _way _out of my comfort zone.

I heard something coming from the closed glass door and saw dad hunched over on his desk, his shoulders shaking, and his phone lying, still flipped open, on the floor next to his chair. I realized the sound was his racked sobs.

My eyebrows furrowed, and I cautiously opened the door a crack. I hadn't been there before (as I said before) so I was surprised to see that his office wasn't messy like you'd think it would be, but dismissed the thought once remembering the object at hand.

"Dad? What's wrong?" I was surprised at how…_little _my voice sounded. It wasn't my normal Max-ish voice or anything like that. No, it sounded like a little kid. It was like I was six again, seeing my dad pack his bags without explanation.

"Are you okay?" I slipped through the door and came up to stand behind him. He nodded once, though I could tell he was lying to me, but not in a bad way. More of a protective way. He tried to stop the stream of tears, but his attempts were futile and we both knew it.

After composing himself enough to talk, he looked me in the eyes and said, "Come down stairs. There's something I need to tell all of you." I gave him a confused look, but followed him down, none the less.

**_LA LA LA THIS IS A PAGE BREAK. RAWR._**

"Max…um, well…Something's happened with…well, with…" Dad stuttered. We were all seated around the den. Iggy, Fang, Ella and I squished on the couch (Ella on the armrest), Gazzy and Angel in the La-Z-Boy and Ari on the floor next to my feet. Dad stood in front of the coffee table, not meeting anyone's eyes as he shuffled around nervously.

"With whom?" I asked him, less gentle than intended. (Or, well, harsher, I guess you'd say instead.)

He cleared his throat and then looked to the kitchen, right behind Ella. "With your mother…" was his barely audible response.

I stared at him, eyes a little wider than normal. Ella jumped from her seat on the armrest. "What do you mean, 'something's happened with mom?'" She asked him accusingly.

He still refused to look at her. "She's…um, well…She…" His eyes filled with tears again and I narrowed my eyes a fraction.

My blood went cold when he finished, "She got in a car accident at around midnight last night. The doctors couldn't do anything, she was dead on arrival. " All of our jaws' dropped in sync.

No one said anything for a long time as the news sunk in. What? Was he serious? He wasn't serious…right?

No, of course not. Mom couldn't…she…

She wasn't dead! I re_fused _to believe that bull crap. No. _She_. _Wasn't. Dead! _

After a moment, my expression turned stone cold and I stated rather than accused, "You're lying."

Dad looked at me for the first time since I saw him in his office. "Max, I assure you, I wouldn't _lie _about—" I didn't let him finish though.

"Mom's not dead! She _can't _be dead!" I yelled at him, furious. How could he even _think _about...Ugh!

He started to talk again, but I didn't hear any of it, because I stormed out of the room and to Ella and I's bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

**_Grrr, this chapter is dramatic :\_**

After a while, my rashness died down and I realized that, even if I didn't trust dad, he _did _love her once. Even if he hadn't loved her then, he still never wanted her dead or wished anything like that upon her.

So mom really _was _dead.

Then _that _realization sunk in and I started to bawl. No, not just _cry, _but _bawl. _Maximum Martinez/Ride does _not...bawl. _

But there I was, sitting on my floor Indian style, leaning against my bed, crying my eyes out.

Mom was dead. I hadn't even said good bye, though! How...how could life be that cruel? She was only forty-three, and her career hadn't even taken off! She had a boyfriend and children and...and...

I admit, I felt like I had been betrayed. The Universe was so...so...unforgiving and cruel. It just thought it could yank whoever it wants out of the world and everything would be okay! It took Brandon and Mom and our old dog Akila and...

My faith in God changed that day, I think. Why would He take someone so innocent and good from the world when she clearly had things to accomplish? When she clearly had a life to full-fill?

A soft knock interrupted my thoughts and I quickly tried to compose myself, but failing miserably. I swiped away the tears really quickly, suddenly glad that my eyes dried quicker than a lot of people's. I muttered, "Come in," and, to my surprise, Fang walked in slowly and sat down next to me on the floor.

I refused to look at him, embarrassed that he was the one seeing me in such a mess. The only people who ever saw me cry, was Ella, Brandon, and Mom.

Oh, God, mom...

Of course, my eyes started watering again, but I blinked the tears away, not allowing them to spill over onto my cheeks.

We sat there in silence for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only minutes. It, surprisingly, wasn't an _awkward _silence. It was actually kind of...comfortable. Huh. This, my friend, was new.

Then, of course, I had to ruin it by freaking _crying _again_. _I could count on one hand how many times I've cried in my life, and two of the five was right now!

But I was still upset. Still felt betrayed. What did you want me to do? Wait until he was gone to cry my heart out? Trust me, if I could've, I would've.

For some reason, he didn't leave like I expected him to. (I mean, come on! It was going to get uncomfortable just sitting there with a girl who was crying, that you barely know.) But, somehow, I ended up crying on his chest, Fang's arms surrounding me like a protection barrier. He started stroking my hair and whispering words to comfort me.

I cried into his shirt for what felt like forever, but after a while of sobbing, I gathered up any dignity I had left, and pulled away. To my horror, the front his shirt was completely soaked. _Crap it!_

After that realization, I didn't look him in the eyes when mumbling an apology. I thought back about Mom, but I made sure that time that absolutely _no _tears slipped over when my eyes began to water some more.

I could still feel his eyes on me, though. He just stared at me, kind of as if he were trying to figure me out. What was there to figure out again? I was pretty easy to get. I was sarcastic, witty, and tough. I loved running and skateboarding, I didn't trust my dad, and I was incredibly socially awkward. That was about it. So why did he seem to be trying to understand me more?

I kept glancing at his face to see if I could detect any emotion. Nope, none. He still looked the same he did a few seconds ago. Black hair pushed to the side messily, brown-_almost-_black-eyes not showing any of his feelings. The only thing I could tell that showed me _any _sign to what he thought, was the slight tightening of his eyes, which showed me he was analyzing me. Greaaaat.

That was sarcasm.

I broke the oncoming silence after a few seconds. "Why did you come up here? Did the Flock send you up?" I could barely hear myself say it, it was so quiet. I wasn't in any mood to have a conversation, the day's events coming back to me.

Despite my almost inaudible question, he answered me, none the less. And what he said kept me up that night thinking about it, until my exhaustion finally took over, leaving me in a dreamless sleep.

"I wanted to."

**_Oooh, more awkward lines!_**

_Valencia Martinez lied to a white, steel bed, unwillingly. Her arms were tied down by metal straps, locked by some chain. She could see the key to the lock on the wall next to her, but there was no physical way she could've reached the key. _

_Her legs felt like they were being burned, while at the same time being froze. Her arms felt like they were being ripped apart in opposite directions, and her head felt like it was exploding. In other words, she was very, very, _very _uncomfortable. _

_There were no windows leading outside in the small, in-closed space you could barely call a room. There was a total of six things there: the bed she laid on, the sink beside her, the cabinet beside _that, _the light hanging above her, the wooden box at the foot of her bed, and the key on the wall. There was a window that showed the hallway that led to nothing she could see, but it was more of a...of an observatory window, open for anyone to look through and see her. _

_Suddenly, the glass door swung open and a woman probably in her late twenties strode in, her stilettos clicking on the tile floor, echoing in the empty, high-ceiling room. She approached Valencia, to where Ms. Martinez could see her. She had blonde, obviously dyed, hair and bright green eyes. She walked with such authority that you seemed to have the need to always obey her, even if you didn't want to.  
_

_The woman's voice was so sickly sweet, filled with fake enthusiasm and obviously not trying hard to candy-coat her cruel _true _voice. __She spoke with such gall, too. "Hello, I'm Dr. Massix. You're Valencia Martinez, I presume?"_

_Said woman didn't even respond. She just stared at Massix, waiting for an explanation. Massix sighed. "I'm here to..._help _you. I'll just need you to answer a few questions. I'll do a few tests, and then I can help whatever pain you're in go away, yes?" __She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at Ms. Martinez, looking even more fake_—_if that was even possible. Ms. Martinez swallowed the feeling that screamed for her to obey Dr. Massix, set her jaw, and asked in a steely voice, "What if I don't need help? Or want it?" _

_Dr. Massix only smirked and answered, all fake sweetness gone, "Then we have a problem, don't we?"  
_

* * *

**By the way, the pattern was:**

**Each chapter, there's a song in it, that goes with that chapter. In THIS one, it was the last song mentioned in chapter six (Shattered by Trading Yesterday.) because I couldn't find a time to put the song into this. **

**Listen to that while you read this chapter, 'kay? It works. **

**Kind of. **

**The mood of each chapter always depends on at least one of the following things:**

**1) My mood, 2) The song I am currently obsessed with, and/or 3) The weather. **

**Just thought you ought to know that.**

**Best wishes!**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	8. You've Got Us

**Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, you all hate me. Whatever. I was having trouble! **

**I'm slightly upset that no one caught my John Green reference in the last A/N :( And no one's reviewed in forever. **

**But whatever. **

**DISCLAIMER: No.**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**

* * *

**3****rd**** Person:**

Dr. Jeb Bacheldor woke up at exactly 2:54 AM, sweating buckets, and breathing heavily. The dream he had was so vivid, so life-like, that it was hard to not believe that was actually what happened. Val had looked so lost and broken, though; it took all his strength not to go looking for her, even when he knew it wasn't real.

Dr. Eleanor Massix—his old work buddy. How ironic is it for it to be her that was the one torturing his ex-wife in his dream? Dr. Massix never was very nice, anyhow.

He knew that the police didn't lie about it. Why would they, anyway? They wouldn't have had any motives. For a man of strategy, that definitely would just be pointless.

They would have to plan the funeral soon enough, but Dr. Bacheldor really didn't want to think about it. He suspected that neither did the children. Valencia had been more of a mother to Ari than his _real _mom, and Max and Ella had always had a special bond with their mother.

He rubbed his forehead and sat up in his King sized bed, ripping the covers off from how immense the heat was. The middle of summer—of course it was going to be hot! How stupid of him to go to sleep in long-sleeves, and with all his covers.

He soon found that he wouldn't be able to go to sleep the rest of the night, due to that one specific dream. Instead, he decided to just finish his work and try not to think about it too much. Dr. Bacheldor found that if you gave your all for one thing, the next wouldn't be as hard.

But he couldn't concentrate on his work, so he decided to go downstairs and get a late-night snack.

He tried not to make a lot of noise on the way through the hallway, because he knew what a light sleeper Ella and Max were (Ari wasn't as much of a light sleeper). He didn't know about their friends, so he just stayed extra cautious, in case they were light sleepers too.

The floorboards creaked underneath his feet as he made his way down the long stairway. The house they lived in wasn't exactly a "mansion" but it wasn't really just a "house" either. It was somewhere in between there. Sure, it cost a fair amount of money, but not as much as a _mansion _would.

He felt around for the handle of the refrigerator. He had forgotten to put his glasses on when he got up, but he didn't want to have to go back up just to get a pair of glasses. Once finding the handle, he grasped it firmly and pulled the door open, shielding his eyes with his free hand when the light came pouring out. He squinted into the fridge, noting how it needed to be restocked. They were almost out of food.

He flailed around blindly for a moment before coming in contact with something. His eyes finally adjusted, and he realized what he was holding was yogurt. Jeb shrugged. Might as well have some Yoplait, then.

He shut the door, darkness overtaking everything again. He slowly made his way to the drawer, opening it and taking out a small spoon. How did James (or Iggy, as he preferred people to say) do that?

Ripping off the cap and dipping his spoon in the yogurt, he made his way to the couch, slowly settling into the cushion. At forty, he shouldn't be that sore, but yet he was.

Licking the spoon, he couldn't help but wonder what would posses Max to think he was lying. Okay, so, yeah, sure, he'd done some pretty chancy stuff, but he'd never wanted anyone _dead! _He wouldn't ever lie about that!

Jeb also wondered why she seemed so distant all the time. Ella was just a social butterfly, but Max was far more closed off. She didn't ask for anyone over, unlike Ella—actually, she even seemed dejected when Ella asked for her friends over.

He also wondered if that would ever change.

* * *

******THREE WEEKS LATER******

* * *

**Max's POV:**

* * *

"Max, are you ready?" Ella popped her head around my bedroom door, her long hair swinging in her face as she does so. I took a long look at the mirror one last time, ran my hand through my hair really quickly, and nodded at her, still not looking away.

My blonde hair lay on my shoulders, a black pin keeping my bangs out of my eyes. I felt _extremely _violated in the black dress, even if it does go to _righ_t above my knees. I had, surprisingly, put on the black high heels without a fuss. In my right hand was a black purse, something that amazed even me when I took it. I wasn't wearing any makeup except for some eyeliner and gray eye shadow. Despite the fact that I actually felt pretty for once (yes, I admit it), I was still beyond depressed.

I sighed and made me way out of the room and downstairs, where the Flock was waiting for me.

The only reason the Flock was coming, is because Ella and I begged them to. Really, I think they felt like they weren't welcome because it wasn't _their _mother's funeral—but they were our friends, so we decided that they should come.

When I got down, everyone was already there, apparently just waiting for me. I nodded in hello to everyone (except Iggy, who I muttered a quiet hello to), taking in what they are all wearing.

All the guys were wearing black tuxes; with either black, dark blue, or dark green ties (Iggy was wearing the blue, Ari the blue, Gazzy the green, Dad the green, and Fang the black). Ella was wearing a lacey, black dress just above her knees, black flats, and brought with her a black purse, like mine. Her dark brown hair was put up in a low ponytail, a black bow tie in the back. Her makeup was identical to mine.

Nudge had on a black, silky skirt (the same length as Ella's dress), a black tub-top, and a gray cardigan over that, with black sandals. She didn't have a purse (amazingly), but I suppose she didn't need one. Her brown hair was up in a fancy bun that looked amazing. Nudge's makeup is light and beautiful, with just a thin coat of lip-gloss, and gray, silver, and blue eye shadow. Her eyelashes were long enough without mascara.

Angel had on just a gray dress with a black bow tied in the back and black flats. Her blonde hair, like mine was just on her shoulders. A black (of course) flower clips pushed some of her hair off to the side. She cradled a little teddy bear in an angel costume in her arms, swaying back and forth on her heels.

Dad came up to my side, putting a hand on my shoulder, a gesture that I think is supposed to be comforting, but just turns out uncomfortable for both of us. After a moment of just standing there in silence, he let out a breath of air, somewhat of a sigh. "Let's get in the car," he said, taking his hand off my shoulder, grabbing his keys off the kitchen counter, and heading toward the door. We all follow him, still not talking.

Before we left, though, I quickly grabbed my ipod from the kitchen and stuffed it into my purse before anyone noticed.

Since there were nine of us, and only eight seats in Dad's car, one of us had to double. We all agreed that since Angel was the smallest, she'd sit in someone's lap, and she decided she'd sit in mine.

Joy.

So, I was stuck in between Fang and Ari, with Angel on my lap.

No one talked almost the entire way there, except when Nudge or Jeb would try to start a conversation, always failing. I just brought out my ipod and popped the earphones in my ears, putting it on shuffle. The song _The Funeral _by _the Band of Horses _came on, and my expression turned sour. _Oh, how appropriate that is, _I thought bitterly, switching the song to _In My Place_ by _Coldplay. _Fang must have noticed the acid look on my face, and asked me silently what was wrong. I just shook my head and turned the music up louder.

**_OH, HEY. I ACCIDENTALLY TURNED ON CAPS LOCK…DARN IT. _**

After the funeral, we all went back to our house, the air still thick with discomfort. Jeb went to bed as soon as we got home, even though it was only eight o'clock. Ella had the _lovely _idea to watch a movie or something, and, having nothing better to do, we all agreed. The Flock went over towards the cabinet that held all of the movies, while I didn't move.

I still wasn't energetic at all, not having been since…well, you know.

I saw Nudge shoot me a worried look, seeing as I wasn't moving from my spot in front of the door. I didn't respond. I was too busy looking at something on the island counter-thing in the kitchen.

On it, was a sheet of paper, folded up a couple of times, but halfway open. I stared at for a moment, taking in the familiar handwriting that had my Dad's first name on it.

I slowly walked towards it, sort of robotically, picking it up.

I was sure that I had seen the handwriting many a time, but I couldn't remember where. Fang and Ella noticed that I wasn't over there, and gave me a confused look. I just shrugged at them, giving a smile that obviously didn't reach my eyes.

I unfolded the letter. It read:

**_Dear Jeb, _**

**_It's been such a long time since I've seen you in person. I wish I could, but I'm also slightly afraid that we won't know what to say when we do. But it'd be worth it to see Ella and Max, too. _**

**_I'm going to stop beating around the bush now—the reason I wrote you this is serious. I could've just called, I know, but I felt like you'd need to keep this as proof. You can't keep a conversation for forever. _**

**_Here it goes:_**

**_Do you remember when you were still a scientist? And when Max…. well, you know. When we got her out of your work place? _**

**_Well, I've been meaning to tell you this since she was six years old. I'm aware that it's been a long time, but I never felt it was the right time to tell you. _**

**_Anyways, since she was six, she's had nightmares. About the Erasers. When she was really little, she'd wake up screaming and sleep with me that night. They stopped right after she turned eleven. When she was eight she'd start to have random migraines, and she sometimes told me that she'd see images. Most of the time the images where of things from the School that she probably saw when she was really little. _**

**_Ella said that Max would talk to herself sometimes when they were both really little. She said that it appeared that Max thought Ella was asleep, but when she talked, it was as if to someone else, most of the time like she was annoyed at someone. When Ella was six, she told me that it had been happening for about a year or so, and it worried her. I talked to Max about it, but she said she didn't, and if she did she didn't remember any of it. _**

**_I was hoping that you'd know what this meant. I haven't talked to either of them about since they were very little, but sometimes I think that Ella still remembers. _**

**_I have one, very vivid memory from when Max was seven. She came up to me one night, at around 2:00 A.M., and she told me about her latest nightmare and migraine. I remember she said that she felt like she was going crazy, because she said she heard voices right before she went to sleep. _**

**_It went away when Brandon died, but…I don't know. I still worry about her. Maybe while she's staying with you, you could figure something out. _**

**_I don't know, but just take care of them :) _**

**_Love,  
_**

**_Valencia _**

"Max? What's wrong?" Ella asked, coming to stand by me. She looked over my shoulder at what I was holding, and I just stared at it in shock. How…how could I have…done any of that when I was little, and not remember _any _of it, except the nightmares? I didn't remember the migraines, or the voices, or the "talking to myself." How could I have done so many worry-provoking things, and not even remember telling Mom about it?

It didn't make sense.

"Max? Max? What's wrong? What's in your hand? Are you okay?" Nudge questioned, coming near us. The whole Flock was looking at us with curiosity, all wanting to know what was wrong. I didn't say anything. I just handed the letter to Ella and ran up the stairs to my room.

"Max!" Ari called after me, and I heard footsteps after mine on the stairs, so I assumed he was following me.

I hadn't even noticed that I was crying. It felt so weird to read something that she wrote, to think that she had once sat down and…Oh, gosh, it's Brandon all over again!

"I'm fine, Ari," I said, wiping the tears away before turning around to look at him. We were at the top of the stairs by now, me standing in front of Ella and I's room.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I gave a small laugh, the effect to seem okay ruined by the fact the tears blurred my vision again and poured down. "Yeah," I said, closing my eyes, "I'm sure."

He didn't leave. I sat down against the door to my/Ella and I's room, leaning my head against it. My eyes were closed, but I heard him sit down next to me and snuggle to my side. I smiled weakly and pulled him closer. What can I say? I had a soft spot for little kids.

After a minute, we saw/heard (I heard, he saw) the Flock come up the stairs to see what was wrong. I opened my eyes when I heard snuffling, and I realized that Ella was crying too, tears smearing her makeup, her brown eyes red and puffy. I opened my free arm up to her, inviting her to sit down with us. She did.

"You okay?" I croaked, and she nodded into my shoulder. The rest of the Flock just stood there awkwardly, waiting for us to get up. I gave a short, less-strained laugh than before, and we got up.

"I'm sorry," I apologized to them. "I didn't mean to turn it into a crying fest," insert another, _more_-strained laugh.

Angel shook her head. "It's okay, you guys. You don't have to be sad. You have us." She came over and hugged my legs. I smiled down at her and bent down to hug her back.

We pulled apart after a moment, and I realized just how messed up we probably looked. I hadn't noticed before, but Nudge, Angle and Gazzy had been crying, too, just softer. Iggy and Fang looked very upset (yes, Mr. I Will Not Show Any Emotion At All showed emotion), both seeming to understand where we were all coming from. All of the girls' (minus Angel, since she didn't wear any) makeup was smeared and runny, and all of our hair was messed up. I don't know how that happened, but it did.

"Well, I think us girls need to get cleaned up," Ella said breaking the silence. Nudge and I nodded in agreement and Angel came with us. The boys waited downstairs, getting the movie and popcorn ready while we changed.

I changed into just a pair of basketball shorts and t-shirt, and spent quite a while scrubbing off the makeup, however little there was. Nudge wore some of Ella's clothes, since they were the same size, and I let Angel wear one of my big t-shirts, since it could be a gown on her, it was so big.

The boys were already sitting around the TV when we got back, two bowls of popcorn ready to be devoured. They had changed, too. Gazzy wore some of Ari's clothes that were too big for him, and Iggy and Fang wore some of Dad's.\

I had to sit on the floor with Fang and Iggy, while Ella, Nudge and Angel sat on the cough, and Ari was in the rocking chair (yes, we have a rocking chair) while Gazzy got the La-Z-Boy.

"Hey, no fair! I wanted the La-Z-Boy!" Nudge said, pouting immaturely. I smiled at their banter. It was quite amusing, actually. They started bickering about it.

"Wait!" Iggy interrupted. Ella got up and turned off the lights and then sat back down again, right above him on the couch. "Did all of you call your parents to make sure you can stay the night?" They all nodded and I gave Ella a confused look. "Since when has everyone been sleeping over?"

Fang decided to talk just then. He shrugged. "We talked about it when you were getting ready earlier."

I gave a look of fake shock. "And you didn't think to ask me if it was okay first? No one cares about _my _opinions?"

Fang stared at me. "Nope."

I glared at him and fake pouted. "Jerk…"

He smirked.

I glared more.

He smirked more.

I stuck my tongue out at him, being the completely mature fifteen-year-old girl that I was.

"Okay, so as _much _as I enjoy watching you two flirt with each other all day, we need to start the movie," Ella interrupted. It was her turn to be glared at. I was aware that my face was completely red, but I hoped the lack of lights would cover that up. Fang just shrugged again.

With a start, I realized how differently the day had gone than I expected. First, I was fine. Then, I read the letter. We all cried a bit. Then we watched a movie and joked a bit.

Not how I expected it to end. But I liked it.

* * *

**Yeah. REVIEW! **


	9. AN: Should they kiss or WHAT?

**Yo, you guys! Listen up!**

**I know I haven't been on in, like, seven months, but there are reasons as to why. (School, other fanfiction, loss of interest in the plot, blah blah blah) but I am back now! I sat down a couple of hours ago, thinking I was going to be writing some Out of Line, but then my hands decided to do something different and so more than half of the next chappie is done. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the next chapter, but I need your help real quickly. **

**I have a question for you:**

** _Should Max and Fang kiss in the next chapter or should we wait a little bit more?_  
**

**Also, I just went through and read some of this fanfiction and realized how much I have progressed while writing this story. I love being able to do that. :) **

**So yeah! Keep in mind that I can't finish the next chapter until I find out if you guys think they should or not. Do you think it'll be too rushed? Do you think it'll be freaking ADORBS (wait-what? Of course you think that! Silly question on my part.) and that I should indeed have some faxy-sauce-ness soon? What? TELL ME. I seriously need your help, no joke. **

**And, so that we are perfectly clear: _I AM NOT QUITTING THIS FANFIC BY ANY MEANS, GOT THAT?_**

**So yeah. Review please and I'll see you in a couple of days. (No promises as to when, though.) **

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**


	10. Turned Insane

**I am BACK, baby!**

**Disclaimer: What? You think anything has _changed_ in the last...seven months? HECK N****O. I STILL NO OWN ANYTHING.**

* * *

The next morning, we all woke up groggily, all of us sprawled out somewhere in the den. We hadn't planned to sleep in there, but we all had fallen asleep sometime during the movie. I was resting my head on something soft, kind of like a cushion, but yet harder, and my legs were sprawled out on the other side of the couch. I didn't have any idea how I ended up on the couch, but somehow I did. Ella had her head resting on Iggy's shoulder (aww!) and they were lying on the floor. Some time during the movie, Angel and Nudge had somehow managed to take the La-Z-Boy from Gazzy, and they were lying back in it. Ari and Gazzy were on the floor, a good ways away from Ella and Iggy.

I was still only half awake, so my brain wasn't exactly working that well. I was too comfortable to get up from where I was, so I just kind of glanced around the room. Everyone was asleep but me, which was strange, since Ella's the early bird, not me. I glanced down at my watch, realizing it was only 8:37 AM.

I couldn't go to sleep, but I didn't want to move, so I just sort of laid there for what seemed like forever until I started wondering where Fang was.

He wasn't on the floor, and he wasn't in any of the chairs. As far as I knew he wasn't upstairs, and I heard no noise from the kitchen.

Realization hit me and I jumped up from where I had been laying before.

Crap! I was using Fang as my cushion.

_Well…this is awkward. Good thing no one's awake_.

My brain started working again after that, and all of what happened yesterday came flooding back to me. My face fell.

But I refused to start crying again, even if all I really wanted to do was go curl up in a ball somewhere in my room and never come out. I would not, and I mean _would not, _cry in front of the Flock again. Nope. Not going to happen. I repudiate.

(How ironic that statement is.)

(Oh, and if you're confused, then don't worry, you'll find out in a little bit. Just be patient.)

So I shoved away the impudent desire to bawl my eyes out, and went up to my bedroom to change into my everyday clothes. I ended up just changing into what I normal wore: blue jean shorts, my "Fleet Foxes" band t-shirt, and my Converse. I combed through my hair quickly, brushed my teeth, and stuffed my ipod into my pocket. Since I moved there, I hadn't wanted to leave any place at all with out my ipod. It was kind of like a security blanket, I suppose.

By the time I got down stairs, Ella and Gazzy were awake, but no one else. Ella looked surprised to see me dressed and Gazzy looked like he needed some coffee. "Wow," Ella said, looking at me approvingly. "You're actually awake before noon and it's not a school day, nor did I wake you up. I'm impressed." I smiled at her. "Why, thank you, dear sister."

"What's for breakfast?" Gazzy asked, rubbing his eyes with his fists and I couldn't help but smile at his bed head. I turned to Ella. She just looked back at both of us. "What? I don't cook."

I sighed. "Well, I'm not coming anywhere _near _the stove or oven or _anything that can heat up, _unless you want to get food poisoning."

We just stood in silence for a minute before Ella spoke up. "Um, is Dad awake?"

My eyebrows furrowed. "I…don't know."

"I'll go check," she offered, and then left up the stairs, her feet pattering against the steps the only sound there was, minus Nudge's snoring. I sat down at the kitchen table and Gazzy sat across from me. "How'd ya sleep?" I asked, trying to make conversation. He shrugged, but told me anyway. "I had a really weird dream that for some reason, I could drive, and I was trying to get away from some people. The car I was in stopped in the middle of the street and literally fell apart until it was just the seat I was sitting on. Then the police came and took me away to jail." He had a thoughtful look on his face. I smiled. " I have—" but I was cut off because Nudge started yelling something in a different language. It sounded like…Spanish? "¿Qué hora es?" she yelled and then went right back to snoring. I gave Gazzy a weird look. He didn't look as if it were anything out of the ordinary. In answer to my questioning look, he said, "Oh, it's fine. Nudge just talks in Spanish while she's sleeping. Happens all the time."

I nodded and then continued what I was saying. "I have dreams like that constantly. Although, most of the time, they're about this place that…"

I stopped talking and looked down at my hands. I tried pulling that memory of it out of the back of my mind, but I just…couldn't. I could only remember blips of the dream. Like, how there were cages, and…humans that seemed to be part dog. Like a werewolf, even though I never believed in that kind of thing. And I was always running away…and I was always caught again…

"Max?" Gazzy asked me, waving his hand in front of my face. I snapped my head up to look at his worried face. "Are you okay?" His blue eyes showed concern and I smiled weakly, a failed attempt to seem unbothered. "Yeah. Fine."

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when we heard Iggy shifting. Said fifteen-year-old lifted his head and stretched, before getting up and moving towards where he knew the kitchen was.

Gazzy continued. "You sure, Max? You don't _seem _fine." I smiled again, except this time it wasn't forced. Iggy stepped in, scratching his head, and took a seat one chair from mine to my right. "Why doesn't Max seem fine?"

I said, "Both of you, I'm fine. Just tired is all," before Gazzy could explain. I pushed my seat back, the legs scraping the floor lightly, and got up to go see why Ella was taking so long.

**_I can tell by your eyes/You've never been by the riverside _**

"_Oh my God,_

_I see how everything is torn in the river deep._

_And I don't know why I go the way_

_Down by the riverside."_

I sang quietly, taking my hands away from the piano and putting my head in them instead. I sighed almost too softly to be heard and ran a hand through my blonde hair. I slowly got up from the bench and made my way up the stairs.

Mom loved that song. She taught it to me a couple of years ago, when I was twelve or thirteen. I hadn't played it in a while, but I still knew it by heart.

My ipod was waiting for me when I got in my room. It had been a week since the morning after the funeral and Ella was at a sleepover with Nudge, J.J, and some other girls at the school. Ari was outside playing with his army toys, Dad at work, and me just…being me, I guess. Enjoying my solitude. Still sulking.

I was starting to wonder if I should've always been so closed off. I mean, I had started opening up to the Flock and all, but back in Arizona…should I really have shut everyone out? Did it really benefit me?

But then I'd shake my head and tell my self, "Of course it benefited you! Melinda betrayed you, other people can do that. Worse: they can leave you. If you had opened up, you'd have gotten more hurt than the last time."

I was also starting to wonder more and more about that pain in my head I got at school a while back. I mean, it's been months, and you'd think that kind of thing came more than once, but it hasn't made another appearance yet. And I know I shouldn't have been complaining since it hurt _really, really _badly, but…I just thought it wasn't…

I didn't even know.

My phone buzzed from my pocket, signaling I got a text message from Ella or Mo—

From _Ella_. Signaling I got a message _from Ella_.

_Hey, Max! Can you bring over my bag? We're at Nudge's so I figured it wouldn't be that much of a hassle._

I replied quickly. _*Sigh. Where is it?_

_In our room, sitting on my bed. It's the one with the red flowers on it._

I turned around so I was facing her bed and spotted it right away. It wasn't any bigger than a schoolbag and looked filled to the brim. _'Kay. Be there in a sec._

I grabbed Ella's bag, stuffed my shoes on, and ran outside to the backyard to tell Ari that I was just running across the street and would be back in a few minutes.

"Ari!" I yelled, closing the front door and walking around the house to where I had last seen him. "I'm just going to run by Nudge's real fast to drop off—" I stopped short.

He wasn't there. His army toys were left, scattered around the grass, but _Ari wasn't there. _

"Ari?" I called again, getting more panicked. I dropped Ella's bag on the ground, and took off around the huge backyard looking for him. "Where are you?" I yelled. Birds chirping and my breath answered in reply. My eyes searched everywhere for him, scanning the backyard and then the neighbors houses. Seeing nothing, I ran inside and all through the house, never stopping screaming for him. The worst ran around my head, teasing me, making me even more scared.

After not seeing a trace of him anywhere, I took a deep breath. "It's okay, Max," I said aloud. "Just calm down. Maybe…maybe he's at Gazzy's house. Yeah. That's it. He's at Gazzy's house."

I took another very deep breath, trying to calm my nerves, and took out my phone again. I dialed the house number and my heart skipped a beat when Mrs. Walker answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Walker, this is Maxine Martinez, I live across the street from you?"

"Oh, yes, hello, Max! I've heard so much about you from the kids. They say you're a wonderful girl."

I tried my best not to be rude, but it was really hard not to rush her. "Thank you, Mrs. Walker, but it Ari at your house with Gazzy by any chance?"

I could basically feel her confused expression and her voice was full of curiosity when she answered, "No, he isn't. Why? Is he not at home with you?"

I flicked my eyes out the window once more to where I had last seen him. "No, actually, he isn't and I can't find him anywhere. Last I saw him, he was outside playing with his toys, but I went to go tell him I was going to drop something off at Nu—Monique's and he wasn't there." I finished frantically, pacing around the living room now.

"Oh, dear," she said. "What do you think could've happened to him?"

I sighed again. "I don't know, Mrs. Walker, but thank you anyways. I'll call you when I find him."

"Are you sure you don't want me to call the police?"

"No, no, that's fine! I'm going to keep looking," I said. I knew I probably should've called the police, but I was too afraid that those things actually _had _happened to him.

"A—alright, I better be going now," I said, "Goodbye, Mrs. Walker."

"Okay…Bye, Max. Have a good day. And good luck."

"Thank you." Then I hung up my phone and ran to go get my skateboard.

**_Down by the water/The riverbed/ _**

Usually, I would be wallowing in the sheer joy of skateboarding—riding down the street, wind in your hair, and then the feeling that that isn't _wind_ that's passing you, it's you going so fast that the air is like pins—but I was far too worried to even think about it, something not particularly normal for me, as you probably already know. I rode quickly down the street, screaming, "Ari? Ari? It's me, Max! Ari? ARI?" but there was never an answer.

I was nearly to Fang's house when I decided it was time to panic. Fang's house was a little bit away and if he had wandered off, _without telling me_, further than that—then I didn't even want to think about it.

I almost tripped, jumping off my skateboard so fast, but caught myself and threw it off to the side, disregarding it for the moment. I pounded on the door, panting from having to pump my legs so fast, praying to God that _someone _would be there—anyone! It didn't even have to be Fang. I just needed help.

Thank the freaking Lord; I heard footsteps a moment later. The door swung open to reveal Mr. Talk, Dark, and Silent himself, standing there in all his black-clad-emotionless-brick-wall-glory. I sighed in relieve. "Oh, thank god," I said, repeating my thoughts aloud. "I am in a very huge predicament right now," I said through deep breaths. He looked at me questioningly. I took deep breath again and started to explain.

**_ Some body calls you/Some body says/Swim with the current and float away/Down by the river ever day _**

By the time I had finished explaining exactly what was going on, he was already calling his parents, telling them to come home _right now _and that it was an emergency. He didn't elaborate and just hung up the phone. I called Ella and told her what happened. She called Dad and told him and then she called back, saying that he was on his way home. Fang also called Iggy. I didn't call Gazzy and Angel though. No one did. We wanted to see if we could find Ari before we jumped to conclusions. Plus, I didn't want to scare them. So we kept it between us.

Five minutes after we had called them, Nudge, Ella, and Dad were squished into the car, looking eagerly out the window, hoping they would see him walking along the sidewalk or _something_ that might let them know he was safe. Fang, Iggy, and I were running down the street, calling for him. Dad decided that he would go around to some of the nearby neighborhoods while we stayed just looking around our own in case he was hiding or had come back. Fang's parents were on their way home, but where they worked (since they worked in the same building) was nearly an hour away, so we left to look for him before they had arrived.

And so, you see, that was possibly the worst moment for me to get one of the brain-attacks.

There was a slight hissing building up in the back of my head before the pain came like a thousand sharp needles being stuck into my brain at the same time. I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed, clawing my head as if to let the pins out. Behind my eyelids, a bunch of un-wanted things flashed across. A string of numbers passed by, something along the lines of: 10064897623 but I had almost forgotten it the moment it wasn't there anymore. Images invaded my mind, too. Images of those wolf-things from my dreams, images of a little boy—no older than 7—who looked an awfully lot like Iggy curled up in a ball, howling from pain. Images of…Oh my god. _Mom_. In that place that the mini-Iggy had been. Screaming. _Oh my God…_

Suddenly, someone's hands grabbed my own, ripping them away from my head where I had been digging my nails into my scalp. They were telling me something, something I couldn't bother to make sense of, but it sounded comforting, so I started to calm down a little. The pain was lessening…It was leaving…I was finally able to tell Iggy was calling the ambulance and he sounded panicked.

When I was able enough to open my eyes, the first thing I saw was my hands. Scarred and bruised and batter and they had blood covering them all the way from the tip of my fingers to my wrist, like I'd just stuck my hands in a bucket of blood. I started to scream again, squeezing my eyes shut yet again, and the pain came back, though worse that time. I was kicking and screaming and clawing and crying and yelling profanities and I'm sure it scared the two of them but it's not like I had any control of what was going on. If I had, I swear I wouldn't have done any of that.

Then the arms were back and I was leaning against that same someone's chest and the images were slowly leaving again and the pain was going away once more. But instead of screaming, I was crying. Crying for the little Iggy I had seen. Crying for Mom who was being tortured. Crying for sweet, redheaded, little Ari who could be dead at the moment. And crying just because I could, really.

Once I could make sense of things, I realized that everything was silent—even the birds had stopped singing and the cicadas had stopped buzzing—save the raven-haired boy whom was muttering things in my ear and the sound of my pathetic weeping. I could feel the tears cascading recklessly down my cheeks but only later was I embarrassed about it.

I opened my eyes and stopped crying as well as I could manage but didn't pull away from him. I wasn't done needing comforting.

Iggy, Fang, and I sat like that in silence for some amount of time that I can't be bothered to memorize, before I pulled away and stared at my hands in shock.

I was so stunned I managed to not notice one detail: there wasn't any blood on my hands, nor was there any bruises or scars. They were exactly the same—nails bitten down to the nub, the remains of red nail polish that had been chipped off still lingering. But nothing particularly unpleasant. Only later, when I had plopped down on my bed that next morning, did I ever realize that there wasn't anything there. But I didn't pay attention or worry about it until after I had taken a long nap and my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's go back to what moment in the story I was telling you.

I didn't say anything. Not for the next couple of minutes, not for the next couple of hours. Only when I was about to fall asleep, laying on the stiff bed and Fang was holding my hand, did I manage the courage to say, "I'm really, really sorry." He looked at me, his mask for once taken off, and I could tell he was empathetic. He leaned down, kissed my forehead and told me in a soft voice, "You're forgiven."

I barely remember anything from that day after my head stopped hurting. I know for sure that I was taken to the hospital. I know for sure that when I was there, conscious or not, Fang was sitting next to my bed whenever he could, holding my hand, something that I can still recall. (I also recall that I was blushing like mad.) I remember that I stayed there all night until they found out what was wrong with me and why the head-explosion thing kept happening.

They never really did, if I'm right.

**_ Why do I go here/All alone?_**

Two weeks later and the police still hadn't found Ari. No one knew what to think. Even the normal jerks at school had stopped saying anything rude to me. Instead of harassing me, they pitied the girl who lost half of her family relatively recently and was alone, no matter how many people surround her.

Ella was a wreck too, just as much as I was. Except, she expressed it a little differently. She didn't express it the way that I did, by being even more closed off and not speaking to anyone besides her, Dad, and Fang (we'd surprisingly gotten pretty darn close in those couple of weeks), but rather, she just cried often and wasn't nearly as perky and happy-go-lucky as usual.

The Flock helped us out a lot. Some days I'd skip school just because I could, really, and they'd (Nudge, Iggy, and Fang, since Ella normally skipped with me) bring my homework over to do while I was at home, that way I didn't have a bunch of make up work. They'd spend most of their nights with us—up until midnight sometimes—even though we all had to wake up at 5:00 AM if we wanted to catch the bus. I wondered how I had managed to get some super amazing friends like them. Shouldn't I have scared them off by that point?

Anyways, two weeks—that's how long it took for my life to become one messed up jumble of insanity. It's funny how the only world you've ever known your entire life can be rocked in a matter of seconds, isn't it?

**_Down by the river/The rising sun/_**

There was a knock at my door. I didn't bother turning around or moving from my position on my bed, arms wrapped around my knees, knees tucked up to my chest. I tried to say, "Come in," by my voice turned out to be a whisper, so I cleared my throat and said it again.

I still didn't move when the door swung open and that same person sat down next to me on my bed. My eyes were glued in front of me, on the small TV that was in between our beds. It was on, but the volume was down and I could barely hear it—I was really just trying to read their lips. That was something Brandon and I used to do, just out of boredom.

Neither of us moved. I didn't care to, and apparently neither did they, because for what felt like forever, no one said anything. I didn't turn to look at them, but I had a pretty good knack of who it was already.

And, just I had guessed, he said right next to my ear, "Is that all you've been doing today?"

Normally, I would've jumped, but I was getting used to it, and managed to suppress a shiver from running up my spin like a cold hand. So, instead, I answered without looking at him, "Pretty much."

We both gave a sort of dry laugh—well, _I_ gave a dry laugh. He _chuckled_. He only _chuckled_. Remember?

And we were back to the silence. This time, I was the one to break it. "Fang?" I asked, suddenly very timid and hesitant.

I still didn't look at him, but I could feel his dark eyes staring at me. "Yes?"

I bit my lip and looked down from the TV and at the floor. I shook my head and smiled, almost bitterly. "Never mind."

"What is it?" he questioned, probably confused. I shook my head once more and refused to look at him and his perfectly unknowing, freaking adorable face that I was just going to want to spill my whole heart-guts out to. But that would go against almost everything I'd been trying to avoid for the past, like, three years, wouldn't it?

"Max," he said, his voice stern. I ignored it and kept my eyes on the floor.

Don't look at him, Max, you know you're just going to give in if you look at him…don't look at him, don't look at him, don't—

But then it was too late, because I'd already glanced at his face and my eyes seemed to be glued there and my breath decided to abandon me, the traitor.

The worst part?

Fang seemed to be aware of that.

My subconscious decided to be mean and the song that first popped into my head was "Crushcrushcrush" by _Paramore._

_Shut up, brain! _

"Max," he said again, "Why can't you just…tell me what's wrong?" His eyes were pleading and, like I'd seen the other day, his expression for once showed emotion. I opened and closed my mouth several times like a fish, but could never think of a good enough reply. I mean, I didn't know…

_Should I tell him? I mean, I know him pretty well and I trust him, right? So should I tell him?_

_OF COURSE YOU SHOULDN'T, IDIOT!_

Two sides of my conscious were fighting over whether or not I should just freaking tell him, while I was sitting in front of Fang and he was waiting for an answer.

Finally, I decided on something for the moment and managed to reply, "I—I can't. N-not right now at least. It—it's a long story."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay," he said. "I just wished you weren't so closed off all of the time. It can be frustrating"

I'm not sure why, because in hindsight, it seems really stupid, but at the time that statement made me angry. Maybe it was because it was Fang, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent, lecturing me about not showing people how you feel. Maybe it was because I was incredibly and utterly lost at the time. Maybe it was because I just needed to vent and he was really the only one that would still talk to me long enough to give me an opportunity to.

Either way, I laughed with a bitter sound ringing in it, something that scared me. I had never heard myself do that before. "_You're _the one to talk about being closed off!"

He looked at me like I was crazy. (I might very well have been.) "Max, what are you—"

"You know very well what I'm talking about_. Lecturing_ me about not opening up to people when you are a freaking _emotionless brick wall_!" I all but screamed, repeating exactly what I had been thinking.

His jaw set and his mask went on again. "See?" I said. "There's your freaking _mask_ again. I'd never be as good at hiding my feelings if I hadn't watched you do it so much."

He didn't say anything.

I kept ranting.

That's one reason I was surprised that I had somehow been able to find such amazing friends—I treated them like that. I lashed out on them when I was angry, just because they said one, not particularly insulting statement. Any one else would have ditched me by then, but they stayed put, even when I didn't really want them to.

I kept ranting. Fang still didn't say anything. I was getting fed up with that.

I rolled my eyes at him while all he did was sit there and stare at me patiently. "Why aren't you angry with me? Be angry with me!" I shook his shoulders. "Say you never want to see me again! Lash out like I'm doing! _Do something that let's me know that I'm right for being cross and that I'm not a terrible person for saying this__!_"

I was breathing heavily by the end of my mini-speech. He looked at me expectantly and I just stared back, confused, until it sunk it what I had said. I slowly took my hands off of his shoulders and set them in my lap. I looked down. "…Oh..."

There was a long pause of silence.

"Hey," he said, cupping my cheeks and gently tilting my head up to look at him. "It's okay." His voice was calming and the brick wall was down. Hot tears stung my eyes but I refused to let them go. "I'm sorry," I whispered, something barely audible. A normal person probably wouldn't have been able to hear that at all. A normal person probably wouldn't have seen my lips move at all, actually.

But Fang had never, ever been normal anyways.

He pulled me up to his chest and whispered right back, "You're forgiven. You've always been forgiven."

Only a lot longer after did I ever realize that he hadn't meant "closed off" in the same way that he was. Only later did I realize that, in all honesty, he'd always been open to me. It was I who wasn't giving in.

I was hesitant to respond back to his hug, but after a moment, I wrapped my arms around his waist in return and leaned my head against his chest. It seemed for a while that I was going to fall asleep to his heartbeat (I was pretty tired anyways) when I noticed something…His heartbeat was a lot faster than what was normal.

And not just in the sense that when you're nervous your heartbeat quickens, but that it was just normally faster than a regular…humans.

I didn't say anything about it though. I mean, what _do_ you say to that? How can you ask a person why their heartbeat is faster than the average human's without sounding like a creep? And anyways, I was sure it was nothing. So I let myself forget about it completely and I fell asleep right there.

* * *

**Yeah, I know. I'm terrible. I told you I was gonna update a while back and then I didn't. Flaaaaah, I'm terrible. Plus, I know, I know, I didn't make them kiss and then wasn't really any major fax. Originally, the plan was for them to kiss at the very end and then things be all awkward for a while, but I changed it. And I changed it because I realized that he'd really only been her friend for the last...what, three chapters? There's been a lot of time skipped, yes, but they just started being actual friends. So I'll probably make them kiss in the next chappie or so. Something like that. **

**Anyways! How was that for ya? My writing style has changed A LOT since the last chapter, but I hope that isn't a bad thing. :) I know that Max is just very unfortunate in this fanfiction, but I am going to make her even more unfortunate...Mwhahahahahaha...**

***FORESHADOW FORESHADOW FORESHADOW* **

***cough* So yeah. Review please! :D**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.***


	11. Amnesia

When I woke up, I was still in my room, still in Fang's arms. He was leaning against my headboard, propped half way up, with his head leaning against the top of mine. His eyes were closed, his breathing even, but I knew better than to believe that he was asleep. His jaw was set and his hair swept into the way of his eyes. I shifted slightly into a more comfortable position, one hand on his chest and the other curled up to mine, his arms wrapped around my shoulders like we'd laid down in the same position as when I was crying—which was _literally_ what we did, so guess it made sense.

I blinked a couple of times and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, but I certainly didn't want to get up. I stared at his sleeping form, still only half conscious, and leaned my head down. My eyes started closing, and before I knew it, I was numb once again.

* * *

The next time I woke up, it was to a voice that sounded an awfully lot like Iggy's, whispering, "Max…Max…Max, wake up…" Still half unconscious, I flailed my arm around as if to find and mumbled groggily, "Ahdonwanna." I groaned and curled up closer to Fang, who seemed to be just waking up too.

Iggy kept saying, "_Maaaax_, wake _uuuup_!"

I just ignored him and curled up more.

Then suddenly, "MAX!"

I screamed, and since I was on the far side of the bed, I managed to do a face plant into the wood floor with a rather painfully sounding _thump_. _Well_, I thought, _that woke me up right quick_.

Iggy was bent over laughing while I pulled myself up groggily; blowing the hair that had gotten in my eyes out of the way and puling my shirt down (since it had ridden up when I fell off the bed). "Iggy," I growled. "You have two seconds to run before I _KILL YOU_!"

He immediately stopped laughing and flew out the door, yelling behind him, "You wouldn't kill a blind guy!"

I barked back, him halfway down the stairs at that point, me right behind him: "Try me!"

He was too fast for a normal blind guy, but as I mentioned before, he was fantastic at mapping places out, and anyway, he'd never exactly been "normal".

Apparently, Fang and I had fallen asleep at around 10:00 AM, and when I quickly glanced at the clock, it was about a quarter 'til noon. Dad was in the kitchen, cooking something, Nudge was in the living room with Ella, Angel and Gasman weren't over, and…well, you know about everyone else.

"Kids! Kids!" Dad said, trying to get our attention as I chased him around the living room. Growing tired of that, I just reached my hand out and grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him backwards. He yelped and Nudge suddenly screamed, "HEY!" loud enough to get us to pause momentarily. We turned to her, both a bit confused as to how such a small person could produce such a loud sound.

She sat back down like nothing had happened and Dad continued. "No running in the house, you two!"

I groaned. "But Dad, he—"

He gave me a look, shutting me up instantly. Iggy muttered some rather rude words under his breath and I slapped him upside the head. He hissed and glared at me, and though I wouldn't have admitted it to him, it was a bit scary how accurately he guessed where my eyes were.

Dad gave us yet another look and went back to making something in the kitchen. Iggy joined conversation with Ella, who blushed a beet red at something he told her, and Nudge started teasing them. I was about to go back up stairs, when I heard, "Why the sudden ruckus?"

I whipped around on my heel to see Fang, as per usual, and even though he did that to me just about every single day, it never ceased to scare me half to death. I glared half-heartedly at him, and muttered something about going back to my nap. He half-grinned, only the very corners of his mouth coming up, and a question occurred to me.

I turned around again. "IGGY!"

"What?"

"Why'd you wake me-slash-us up anyway?"

He shrugged and then grinned. "I do have ever so much fun annoying you."

"I'm glaring at you."

"'Cause I couldn't already tell." He rolled his sightless eyes. "Plus, your dad told me to wake you up."

"…Why?"

"I dunno. Why not ask him?"

I huffed and made my way back up stairs, not bothering to actually confront Dad about it. I knew why he wanted me to wake up, and I didn't want to talk to him about it.

Fang yawned and scratched his neck, glaring at Iggy also. After a moment, Nudge looked at me with a grin on her face and gave me her pretty, all-knowing eyes. Nothing got past her, and this clearly didn't. She mouthed something to me about explaining what happened, which made me blush despite my will not to, and I mouthed back at her, "Tell you later." She nodded; looking slightly disappointed, and went back to conversation.

"Max," Dad called to my attention, looking away from the food for a moment to meet my eyes. My head snapped up. "Yeah Dad?" Like I didn't already know. I just wanted to put it off. Play the "I don't know what you're talking about" card. That whole shebang.

He waved me over and I obliged, despite wanting to leave. He set the knife in his hand down and wiped his hand on a dishrag before turning to me. He raised his right eyebrow, the way I always did, and gave me an annoyed look. "Max," he said in a warning tone.

"Yes?" I mimicked.

"What happened?"

I blinked innocently. "When?"

He raised that same eyebrow again, and nodded his head towards Fang, who was listening intently to their conversation, and then the stairs.

"Upstairs." Ah, there we have good ole' Jebediah Bacheldor, always the blunt one.

"Um," I started, "I was chilling in my room, Fang came in, we talked, then I fell asleep by accident. There a real reason you woke me up, or was it just because you didn't like where I was?" I told him honestly, leaving out the whole crying thing. He gave me a skeptical look, like he wasn't sure whether or not to believe me. "Honest, Dad. Why would I lie to you?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I know you wouldn't do something like that, but you have to give me some slack here. I'm your dad, and I've never really dealt with this kind of stuff before recently. I'm still not sure."

"It's _fine_," I reassured him. I didn't want him making false assumptions, since I absolutely _detested_ it when people did that. ("That" = believing things that aren't true.) "I swear."

He smiled slightly and hugged me. I stood there awkwardly for a moment, unsure of really what to do, but after a second I hugged him back whole-heartedly. "Love you," I muttered, feeling uncomfortable with being so gushy and jazz. He said the same back and pulled away. I smiled one last time, and then ran to my bedroom to change into something different.

By the time I came down, dinner was ready and the food was sitting out on the counters, ready for us to devour.

"Hallelujah!" I said, plopping down next to Ella, a plate stacked to the brim with anything I could get my hands on. "I am freaking starved."

Nudge looked at me weird while I shoveled spoonfuls of corn down my throat. Feeling self conscious, I slowed down and raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head, fiddling with the fork in her hand. "How can you eat so much and not gain any weight at all? That, my friend, isn't fair."

Shortest thing I'd heard her say all day.

I shrugged. "Just can," I mumbled, before going back to eating.

Ella rolled her eyes and nudged my shoulder. She turned back to our still confused friend and gave her a better explanation. "High metabolism or some jazz like that."

Iggy sat down next to Nudge after a moment and started up a conversation. He fingered the spoon in his hand and turned his pale blue eyes pretty close to it. "You ever wondered what it'd be like to be someone else for a day?"

"All the time," Ella answered, wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin. Iggy was there. 'Course she would try to act lady-like. (Even though he's blind and therefore can't see her.) However, I myself barely knew the definition of that word, and continued to eat like a wild animal, ignoring the disapproving coming from my dear sister.

We kept chatter, and the

* * *

"_Brandon?" a small voice asked. He stirred from his sleep and lifted his head up, staring at the door with his eyes squinted against the sudden light coming from the hallway. Standing there was a little girl, no older than six or seven, with blonde hair like her dad's and brown eyes like her mom. She was in her favorite pink pajamas, a stuffed animal Pegasus tucked under her arm. "I can't sleep 'cause I had a nightmare," she tried to whisper, but she never was good at that anyway. He smiled, waking up a bit, and sat up in his bed. "Why aren't you going with Mommy then?" he asked gently as she crawled up into the bed, fixing the green comforter around her until she was sure she was comfortable. "Mama's scared of me." _

_"Awww, she's not scared of you," he reassured her, ruffling his (already messy) hair and scratching the back of his neck. She climbed into his lap and continued to look upset, apparently not believing him. She stared at her light blue Pegasus and played with it a little, her face surprisingly solemn for such a young age._

"_Uh-huh. She is, Brandon, and I know 'cause I heard her talking to you and she said that she doesn't know what's goin' on with me. She's scared of me." Her eyes started filling with tears and she started sniffling. He flipped his bedside lamp on, and the sudden contrast from the darkness made them both have to squint. "I'm not tryin' to scare her, I promise I'm not! I can't help it," she wailed, disregarding her toy and throwing her arms around his neck instead. He shushed her and hugged her tightly. She cried into his shoulder for a little while, distraught and upset. _Enjoy being with him,_ that voice that she'd had for a while told her_. It won't last forever. You know that. You've always known that and you know what's going to happen, don't you?_ But that only made her cry harder. Why won't you just leave me alone?_ _She thought back to it, hysterical and angry at it._

"_And that thing that keeps talking to me in my head…it won't go away! I don't want it there…it always tells me things, really, really sad and mean things, that I didn't want to know, and it shows me stuff too! It's starting to scare me and Mama hasn't done anything to get rid of it. Why's it there anyway? No one else has one! This ain't normal!" she said, looking even more frightened the longer she thought about it, biting her bottom lip anxiously like she always did. After a moment, she attempted to whisper, looking up at him with big cow eyes, "Is Momma gonna give me away?" _

"_My tough little Maxine Martinez…Maximum Ride," he said, staring back at her with the same eyes, "you are okay. Everything is okay. Mom is fine and she is definitely _not_ scared of you. She loves you a whole bunch, just as much as I do, and she would never, ever, ever, _ever_ even _think_ about giving you up. I promise." _

_She held out her right hand pinky finger. "Pinky promise?"_

_Brandon hooked his around her finger and smiled softly. "Pinky promise." _

_She beamed back, a gap where her two front teeth should be, happy with this and convinced. "Now can I tell you what my nightmare was about?" she asked, picking up her favorite stuffed animal again and messing with the wings. He nodded and waited patiently for her to explain what it was. "Well, there was a little boy my age, with really blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was sitting in a crate or something. Maybe it was a cage? …I don't really know. Anyways, he was sitting in a cage and he just looked so sad, and he was crying and yelling for his friend and…" she sighed. "Anyways, and then this other person walked in the room and starts being mean to him, yelling things and kicking the cage before throwing it onto a cart. The person wheeled the boy out of the room and into this other room, where there's this little girl, a bit younger, with brown hair and brown skin and brown eyes, and she looked real afraid and it was scaring the boy. And she started saying something about what happened and…" she paused. Her eyebrows creased and she tilted her head to the left slightly. "And I can't really remember what happened after that." _

* * *

I woke up sweating.

My heart was pounding, I was breathing heavily, and my sheets were thrown all the way across the other side of the room. My blonde hair was a mess, all tangled up and it was a rat's nest. I looked like I hadn't gotten even a minute of sleep—and I felt like that too. My throat was dry and my alarm clock hadn't gone off, meaning that it was either broken (again), or it was the weekend and I'd just forgotten.

It ended up being the latter one, because when I went downstairs, Ella was sitting in the living room, curled up in a blanket, eating cereal while watching BBC. I looked at the clock in the kitchen, and it read: 10:38 AM. I attempted to comb through my tangles, but just ended up basically killing my hair in the process, so I gave that up and fixed myself cereal. I thought about that dream…it seemed like all of my dreams were about things that I didn't really want to think about, honestly. I didn't want to think of those terrifying monster and I didn't want to think of when I was little and Brandon was still alive. It was just…all too much to handle. Having all of this come back at the same thing that everything else happened. I thought it was pretty cruel.

"Sleep well?" I tried to make conversation while I made myself comfortable on the couch next to Ella, tucking my feet underneath me. She was still staring at the TV, even though it was just commercials on, her eyes glazed over. After a moment, she nodded, looking down at the ceramic red bowl, and setting her spoon in it. "Yeah. I guess you could say that."

She looked at me after a moment and we both had the same expression on. Her eyes were glassy and her bottom lip was trembling slightly like she was a child again. Thinking about it, I realized that she really actually _was_ only a kid. Thirteen was pretty young for all of this to happen to her.

"I hate nightmares," I stated, right before Ella started crying. She carelessly put her bowl on the coffee table, making a loud clanging noise, and hugged me tightly, like I was her lifeline. I let her cry into my shoulder, patting her back comfortingly as only a sister could do. I was done crying though; I was done showing weakness. I'd had my fair share earlier and had promised to myself that I wouldn't anymore. It seemed to have been working, though you could never be too sure.

"What did you dream about?" she asked me after a bit, wiping her pretty eyes to dry the tears. She was definitely the splitting image of Mom.

I shrugged in response, half-smiling sadly before whispering, "Brandon." Her face instantly softened and she nodded, swallowing hard, and she set her hand on my shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I had a dream about Mom and Ari." She smiled at me, like she was back to her old, happy-go-lucky self, but I knew it pained her to do even that. She was just as good at hiding her emotions as me when she wanted to, but right then, she really didn't want to.

I chuckled slightly, looking back up at her. "It doesn't. But thanks for trying anyway."

"Any time, dear sister."

And we laughed like nothing had changed, even though in reality, _everything_ had changed.

* * *

Later that day, Iggy and Nudge came over to see us. I couldn't stop staring at Iggy, once I'd realized that he looked exactly like the boy that I'd seen when I'd had that head-explosion thing what felt like forever ago. It was uncanny how similar the two were and I was surprised that I could remember the little boy so clearly. Surely that had been the first time that I had seen him, right? I wasn't so sure. I wasn't so sure of anything at that point, if you want me to be honest with you.

I just spent the whole time they were over to think. The more I thought about things, the less it made sense, but the more I remembered. And then the more I remembered (to keep the chain going), the more frightened I became.

I could suddenly remember things like what Mom had mentioned in her letter to Dad. I remembered crawling in her bed one night, crying and afraid, telling her of some voices I'd heard. I remembered over hearing her speak to Brandon about the voices I kept hearing. I remembered a bunch of things like that, and all of them confused me. I didn't still have that voice, so why would I have it as a kid? It was probably just my imagination then.

I convinced myself of that for maybe three more weeks, in which no one found Ari and I grew steadily closer to the Flock, and closed myself away from everyone else at our high school. When I started trying to conjure up a new answer was when I heard Dad talking on the phone with someone else. He mentioned me and my…what he said, "condition." Now _that_ one hurt. It hurt like a stab in the back. I didn't have any sort of _condition_! I was fine. I didn't have a random voice telling me terrifying things and showing me images of children being tested on in labs, and I definitely was _not_ going crazy. Nope. I was perfectly sane, thank you very much, and I refused to go to the loony house, so I tried thinking up a more reasonable explanation for that voice. When I came up with nothing, I started to worry a little. I debated on whether or not I should ask Dad about it, but I decided against it in the end, since that would just make him think I was a lunatic even more, and I definitely didn't need that. So I chose to ignore it once again, and go on as normal.

Pretty soon, the temperature dropped considerably, and everyone was forced into wearing heavier coats and scarves and gloves all the time. It never snowed, of course. It only rained a bunch, dropping everyone's spirits. Winter had arrived and every one wished for snow. Wishes didn't normally come true though.

"I love winter," Ella said one morning while we headed out the door to school. I only nodded in response, grabbing my backpack. She wrapped a scarf around her neck and slipped on her gloves. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and we continued out the door to wait for the bus. Normally we would come out a little early, because sometimes our bus driver randomly decided to pick us up early and we didn't want to miss it. We learned that during our first week.

As per usual, I sat with Fang while she sat with Nudge. Iggy wasn't there that day for some reason; though normally he was and would always strike up a conversation with Ella. It was very clear by then that he had taken a fancy to her, but refused to ask her out. I wasn't sure why, but we didn't push him about it.

"Hey," Fang greeted with a miniscule half-grin—basically just the very corners of his lips turning upwards slightly—as he sat down in the seat next to me. If you don't remember, Fang got on a couple stops after us, which would explain that.

"Hi." I half-smiled back.

We didn't say anything for a moment, so I brought out my iPod for us to listen to. Sharing the headphones had become normal for us, so it was no problem.

"_Love will come set me free_

_I do believe_

_Love will come set me free _

_I know it will" _

I brought my notebook from my backpack and started to doodle just…whatever. I closed my eyes and my hands moved across on their own accorded (not literally). When I opened my eyes, I looked at the random lines I had drawn. I tried to think of something I could make of it, turning the page upside down and sideways, but try as I might, I couldn't think of what it looked like.

I played that game often. Where I draw a couple of random lines and try to make a picture out of it. I'd never had so much trouble as then though…Usually I made something out of it right after I opened my eyes, but I figured I was just too out of it to do much analyzing. I sighed, frustrated, and closed it. "Never mind then," I muttered. Fang gave me a worried look, but I disregarded it with a flick of my wrist, mentally telling him that it was nothing. I was glad when he seemed to understand.

The day was uneventful, as school can be a lot of times. Nothing happened until lunch.

We all sat where we usually did, in the back of the cafeteria. Nudge sat next to Ella, Ella sat next to me, I sat next to Fang, Fang sat next to Iggy, and Iggy sat next to J.J. We all chattered as normal, but about halfway through, something…peculiar happened.

I glanced at the large windows facing where we were loaded onto the buses while Nudge went on about something or another. Do you know what I saw?

For a split second, I saw one of those wolf-things that were always in my dreams, snarling at me, and baring its yellowing teeth. But when I did a double take, it was gone completely and I persuaded myself into thinking that it was just my mind playing tricks on me. And that worked pretty well…until there was a sort of small prick in the back of my head. Something told me that I knew exactly what was going to happen in a moment.

I gripped the edge of the table, squeezed my eyes shut, and gritted my teeth, trying with all might not to whimper. "Max?" Ella asked, but she already sounded a little distant. "Yeah, yeah, I'm…uh…fine," I managed to say. My fists clenched instead, and my nails dug into my palms. I opened my eyes a little and saw that she was staring at my worriedly.

"Um, I think we'll go to the nurse's office," she said, already anticipating what was going to happen soon enough. I only nodded and let her help me out of my seat. Later, I figured they'd been asking what was going on with me, but right then, I could hear voices, but no words.

We stumbled along down the hallway; Ella ignoring all the stares and whispering that I was bond to be going on. After a little bit, the pain increased considerably, but I didn't scream, nor did I stop walking. We made it to the nurse's office without any major pricks, but they started coming the moment I plopped down in a chair.

The nurse examined me and did some other stuff that I couldn't remember afterwards, and concluded that it was just a migraine. Ella and I both knew it was something more than that, but we kept our mouths shut and she hesitantly went back to the cafeteria as the nurse had told her to, leaving me in there.

"This happened last time," the nurse mused from her chair at her desk. I groggily lifted my head a little to look at her through squinted eyes. "What?" I asked quietly. She elaborated. "You came her at the beginning of the year for the same reason."

"Oh," I said, recalling that exact memory. I laid my head back down, staring at my hands. "Can…can I leave early?" I requested. I really didn't feel like staying at school, since I knew it wasn't going to go away soon enough, and then I would feel like crap for another 24 hours. She only nodded, and handed me the school phone to call Dad.

I stayed home the next day too, sleeping in until 1:30 in the after noon. Honestly, I hated sleeping in past noon because then I felt like I was wasting my day, but that's beside the point. I only had to wait another hour and a half before everyone else got back from school. They came to see me, probably worried since only Ella knew what had happened.

"Hey," I called from my position on the couch, hearing the front door open. I was lying with my feet across the couch and my head on the armrest so I craned my neck over to see four members of our "flock" walk in. Angel and Gazzy were at school for another hour, which would explain why only Nudge, Ella, Fang, and Iggy were there. It really was rather convenient that we all lived in the same area, because then we could just walk to each other's houses. Kind of crazy, if you think about it, that we would all end up in the same place and become such good friends and…

But I'm getting off topic. Plus, we aren't even to the part in my story where that gets interesting and it—oh. Oops. Never mind. Erase that from your memory.

Anyway, there was a response of three other "hey"s, and a nod. (I'm sure that by now you can figure out on your own who did that last one.) I smiled slightly and turned back around so that I was facing the TV, which had 90's cartoon re-runs playing.

Nudge lifted my feet up and set them in her lap. She took a deep breath and started chattering. "Oh my gosh, Max, we were so worried about you! You left at lunch and everyone was like, 'what the heck?' and then Ella wouldn't tell us exactly what happened and you didn't call or anything and we thought that maybe it had something to do with what happened a while ago with the head-explosion thing, but we weren't really sure because—"

Iggy, bless his soul, cut Nudge off. "_So anyways_, what happened?" he said quickly and rather loudly. She glared it him, even though she knew it would be lost on the blind pyromaniac.

"Um," I started to say, sitting up straighter and pulling my legs up to my chest. "Well, I just had another…migraine," I said, not really sure what else to call it. They seemed to know that I didn't want to explain much except that, and that answer was pretty legitimate anyways, so they didn't question any further.

"Ohmygohsohmygoshohmygosh! Did Ella tell you what happened at school yesterday after you left?" Nudge asked suddenly, looking at me eagerly. I shook my head slowly and she grinned, turning to Ella. "You get to tell her!" she said and Ella only rolled her eyes good-naturedly and complied.

"So you know Meredith Lead?" Ella said. I nodded. She was one of the popular girls at our school, and it was nearly impossible not to know her. Or, well, _know_ _her_ meaning that you recognize of her existence and social ranking. And if you wanted to know, she was also the girl that was standing around my locker on the first day. If you don't remember, I nicknamed her the Red-Haired Wonder.

Ella continued with her story after a moment. "Well…she got in a catfight."

"_No_," I said, being, okay, maybe just a _little_ sarcastic—but whatever. Nudge nodded vigorously, looking smug. "With who?" I asked.

There was a pause before Ella said, "J.J."

I was actually shocked that time. Sweet, elfin J.J getting in a fight with Queen Bee-with-an-itch Meredith? Not exactly what I would've guessed. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Over what?" I continued. They shrugged their shoulder in sync, which, if you wanted to know, them seemed to do a lot. "I don't even know. I think J.J was having a bad day or something and Meredith was being obnoxious—doesn't seem too unlikely," Nudge said while putting her frizzy brown hair up in a messy bun.

"But…_J.J?_ That doesn't seem like something she would do," I said, not convinced. Nudge started shaking her head, having finished doing her hair quickly. "Oh, no, Max, you haven't _seen_ J.J when she's mad. She's like a freaking _lioness_."

Fang gave the three of us weird looks. Iggy started to say, "Dude, I don't even—" to Fang, but Nudge cut him off by saying quickly, "Dude-man-bro."

Iggy glared at her for interrupting him. She smiled cheekily even if he couldn't tell, looking angelic and innocent.

Before he could even open his mouth to say something else, there was the opening and shutting of the front door. "Hey Dad," Ella and I called at the same time. Said man set his brief case down next to the door and took his jacket off, greeting back, looking hurried. He rushed around, picking up stacks of paper and shuffling through things.

"Um…what's wrong?" Ella inquired, looking at him with a confused expression. He only glanced at her for a moment before going back to shifting through papers. "Uh, nothing's wrong, I'm just…busy."

Her eyebrows creased and she looked at the ground. "Oh. Okay."

Noticing her sudden change in mood, his facial expression softened. He pecked us both on the top of our heads and said, "How are you two girls doing?"

"Fine," we said at the same time in the same tone, and he nodded and smiled in welcome to our friends, seeming to have just noticed that they were there. They smiled and nodded back. "Now, I'm sorry to do this while you have friends over, but I really need to get back to work," he apologized. We said it was all right and disappeared once again into his workroom.

I sighed. "That's all he does anymore," Ella said quietly, studying the pattern on my blanket with an interest that obviously hadn't been there earlier. I shrugged one shoulder like I didn't care, but gave her an empathetic look.

"…Let's go do something," Nudge randomly said, her face brightening and a smile put back on her lips where it normally was. I gave her a suspicious look. It's not like it was a terrible thing that she was happy, but she also seemed a little too enthusiastic about this. What did she have in mind exactly?

"Let's go skating!" she said in answer to our questioning expressions. Ella looked surprised and then excited after a moment (much to my disappointment), Iggy looked amused, and Fang just looked…bored—as always.

I swear that boy knew how to make all of three faces: bored, amused, or empathetic. And the last one, I'd only seen twice at that point.

"But, Nudge, I'm sick," I protested. Truth be told, I actually didn't feel bad anymore, I just didn't wanted to go out. I wasn't in the mood and I decided that I might as well play the "But I'm _siiiicccck_!" card. I mean, why not, you know?

Ella gave me an annoyed look, raising one eyebrow at me like I'd done a million times, and her lips stuck out a little more like she always does when she does that face. "Are you actually sick or are you just faking at this point?"

I sighed. "You honestly think, given the choice, I'll answer truthfully?" She only rolled her eyes at me and replied deadpan, "Fine. You're just faking at this point. Happy now?"

I shrugged. "Close enough. But I'm still not going."

"Awwwwww, _pleaaaaassseeee_?" Ella begged, clasping her hands together and fake pouting. I rolled my eyes but stiffly nodded my head once. She smiled in a thank you and went back to her original position.

"So are we going or not?" Iggy interrupted us, spreading his arms out in an, "any one gonna answer the blind guy?" kind of way. Nudge smiled brightly and said, "Well, duh, I mean, I was either going to drag them along or guilt trick them, but Ella already guilt tricked Max, hence why you don't hear her fussing about it and stuff, and—_ooh_! _Speaking_ of guilt tricking, that totally reminds me of this one time when—"

"Okay, let's go!" Iggy said loudly, standing up and cracking his knuckles.

"Asking Dad, hold on," Ella said and then ran up the stairs to Dad's office. We stood there for a moment, not saying anything besides Nudge's chattered about something that happened a while back, until she came back down and announced that we could go. I groaned while Nudge cheered, Iggy smiled, and Fang kept being Fang.

"It occurs to me that you haven't made a single comment this whole conversation," I said, lacking behind the three of them to stand next to him. He only shrugged and flicked his long dark hair out of his face, probably annoyed by it. I sighed again and tapped a rhythm on my thigh out of…boredom? Old habit? Meh. Something along those lines.

"Um, who's driving us?" Ella asked suddenly. It was obvious that Dad couldn't drive us—he was always too busy doing…whatever it was that Dad always did. Iggy shrugged. "Can't we just walk there? It's like…half a mile away." So we agreed to do that, if only because it was more time to chatter and more exercise for us, I guessed.

Ten minutes later, we were walking along the concrete sidewalk, Fang and I trailing behind Nudge and Ella, and Iggy was somewhere in between us.

"You realize that you can just cut your bangs off, right?" I told Fang while I watched him flick it irritably out of his line of sight for the up tenth time.

"NO!" Ella and Nudge both screamed at the same time. I stopped walking, as did Fang, and we stared at them while they franticly shook their heads and waved their hands in a "done" motion. "DON'T _EVER_ CUT YOUR HAIR OFF!" Nudge said.

"…Um…why?" Fang asked after a moment, looking a little confused.

Nudge gave him a look and groaned, stomping her foot in frustration at his ignorance. "We've been over this—no girls will want to date you if your attractive hair is suddenly chopped off!"

"No offense, but isn't that a little shallow?" I spoke up, raising my hand slightly in question.

Ella sighed and shook her head at me as if I were a child, even though I'm two years older. She made a _tsk-tsk-tsk_ clicking sound with her tongue and said, "Max, Max, Max, how ignorant you are."

I only narrowed my eyes at her.

She shook her head again and told me, "Try to picture Fang without bangs."

I paused for a moment, tapping my index finger on my chin in thought. My eyebrows furrowed. "Oh, God."

Her and Nudge nodded at the same time. "Exactly!" they said, and then reminded Fang in sync that he should never take my advice on stuff like that. I gaped at them, offended, and wacked both them on the arms. They smiled apologetically. I only fake scowled at them.

Just about the rest of the way there was spent in silence coming from Fang and I, since Ella, Nudge, and Iggy were in the midst of a conversation. It wasn't awkward, but it wasn't comfortable, if that makes sense. We were both just walking and thinking, and I started ticking off the seconds in my head.

Since I was the clumsiest person you'd ever have met, I managed to trip over my own feet and do a face plant into the concrete while I was too distracted counting.

"Aww, crap," I mumbled, rolling over on my back, while they stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. Fang only rolled his eyes jokingly and took one hand out of his dark jean pockets and held it out for me to take. I took it obviously, tugging maybe just a little too hard so that he stumbled a little bit, and pulling myself up.

Sooner rather than later, we arrived at the skating rink, all in pretty good moods. Ella was holding Ig's hand (which caused an internal "Awww!" from me, and an "Awww!" out loud from Nudge, which naturally caused them both to blush), and he was grinning from ear to ear. Fang had his hands in his pockets as normal, showing just a smidge more emotion than usual, and Nudge was chattering on and on in that bubbly voice of hers, skipping alongside me.

Everything was going fantastically, but since this was _my_ life, it just _had_ to remind me of _you-know-who_ and…Mom. And since I'm always Melancholy Max, my mood dampened considerably. Luckily, it didn't stop Ella, Nudge, and Iggy from being happy, though Fang, as per usual, noticed. He gave me is some-what-signature (-at-this-point) questioning look that made me want to just tell him every single freaking thing that was on my mind. 'Course, I'd never have the courage do that, ('least, I _thought_ so) and so I just shook my head, waved it off, and tried to answer Nudge's many questions.

* * *

I'd always been frightened by the idea of amnesia.

'Course, I'd never admit that to anyone, but good Lord, it sure did scare me. I mean, think about it: not being able to remember a single thing, like you've just been born as a grown up and everyone else can remember you but you can't. They could be lying and screwing up your whole life, and you wouldn't/_couldn't_ know, because you had _no_ evidence as to what actually happened until you get your memory back (if you ever actually do, that is). You're on your own, you can only rely on yourself and your judgment and the little remnants of memory you have left. You can't really trust anyone. You are forced to re-live a lot of your life.

And that petrified me.

But the problem was: I thought that I might have had amnesia.

Whenever I tried to think of those nights when I heard those…voices talking to me, I just…I just couldn't remember it. I couldn't recall anything, actually, before I turned seven. And that scared me too, because I wanted to know what the heck that was so terrifying that happened when I was seven, or five, or what the heck where those voices? No one would tell me. I hadn't talked to Dad, Mom was dead, and they were the only two people I knew remembered what happened with me.

In short: I was screwed.

But I tried not to really think about it, and just let it go. Maybe I could talk to Dad later on, and maybe everything could be straightened out and I wouldn't have to worry so much…

And all the déjà vu moments I kept having. Surely that wasn't normal either, right? Maybe I was starting to remember, and that's why I kept getting it, and that's why I kept having the reoccurring nightmare. But if the déjà vu was because I was remembering, did that mean that I had meet Fang and Iggy before? Where would I have met them?

I didn't know, but I figured I'd find out sooner or later.

Days went by. The sun rose and set, we talked and laughed and went to school, Dad went to work, and we had a generally good time. Nothing extraordinary happened. I didn't have another "migraine" and the dreams started to gradually get less vivid. Part of me was glad that they were almost over with, and the other part of me wanted to know what they were about and why it was happening, and I knew that I probably wouldn't find out unless I continuously had them.

I didn't tell Dad about my strange case of déjà vu or my fear of amnesia or anything. I didn't tell anyone actually. I was too afraid of what Ella would think, and God knows I didn't have the courage to tell it to anyone in the _Flock_.

Speaking of the Flock: Angel and the Gasman started hanging out with us more, making it official that they were part of our sort-of-kind-of-maybe group thing we had going on. Iggy kept being Iggy, Ella kept drooling over Iggy, Nudge chattered, Angel brightened our day, and Gasman kept being a pyromaniac. Fang was quiet. Like, not normal quiet that he always was, but very, incredibly, _oddly_ quiet. He barely said a word anymore, and stopped coming over as much. To be honest with you, I really didn't want him to just suddenly stop being with us, but I didn't know what really to say to him, and if anyone else talked to him, I didn't find out.

Sooner or later, winter ended and spring began. Nudge was rather happy about this, since she always said that she didn't harbor a fondness for the wintertime. She preferred shorts, a tank top, and sandals, to three long-sleeved t-shirts, two coats, and big puffy boots. I kind of agreed to her on that one though.

Iggy and Ella kind-of-sort-of got together. He asked her out. She said yes. I guess they were a thing at that point, but no one was very sure. They acted more couple-y, so we just sort of assumed they were.

And Fang had distanced himself from us even more. The only times that I saw him was on the bus, the few classes we shared, and lunch. None of which he talked to me. And so one day, sometime during early March, I decided _I_ would talk to him. Something was going on and I wanted to know what.

I grabbed my phone, told Ella I was going out for a run, and left the house. My intentions were to go directly to his house, but that's not how it ended up going down.

The day was clear, and it was in the mid 60s, so I hadn't brought a jacket. I was humming to myself as I went along, staring ahead of me in a sort of dazed way. I was, admittedly, thinking about a certain raven-haired boy.

God, he was so _confusing_. One day he was one of our best friends, chattering away and comforting me like we'd known each other since birth—next thing I knew he barely looked in my direction. I didn't care if he didn't want to talk to me—I was going to talk to him, and I was going to get some answers out of that danged boy. He actually meant a whole freaking lot to me—all of them did—and just the thought of him never talking to us again made me upset. But it didn't just make me _sad_ upset; it also made me _angry_ upset. If he wanted to branch off from us, the _least_ he could do was tell us straight up instead of ignoring us.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, muttering curses under my breath directed at our dear Fangles, that I managed to not notice the man following behind me. I actually didn't notice him until I heard his phone buzz.

I whipped around, scared out of my wits, before I realized that it was a man who looked to be about 30, wearing a three piece suit. He had a blonde buzz cut, and was wearing shades, so I couldn't see his eyes. He glanced at me for a second before taking the phone out of his pocket and answering it. I turned back around and tried to tune him out, but it was kind of hard to do that when I could hear some of what he was saying.

The odd thing: his voice sounded familiar.

"Sir?" he said. I kept looking straight ahead; never letting me eyes stray from the sidewalk ahead of me, never letting my pace slow. "Yes sir…Such a strange neighborhood for them to be in, thinking of the conditions…You'd think that Anthony would've done a better job on the location…" he chuckled, but not in a happy way—a sinister one that sent chills down my spin. I fastened my pace without realizing it.

And there was that déjà vu feeling again. It felt like it was following me—everywhere I went, something was oddly, unexplainably, undeniably familiar. I definitely didn't know that man, but I'd heard his voice before and I knew that ominous laugh. I started to feel like I was trapped, and my hands started to feel sweaty. Something weird was going on.

Something bad.

And so you can understand why I hurried my quickest to get to Fang's house. By then, the man was starting to get even creepier, if that makes any sense. He followed me all the way there, which was quite some way for someone to follow me, and whenever I'd glance at him, he'd smirk at me in a very terrifying manner. How he even knew I was looking at him was beyond me.

Luckily, somebody else called him, distracting him long enough for me to branch off to Fang's house. I bounded up the steps as fast as possible, and pounded my fist against the hard wood. I heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and then the door swung open to reveal a tired-looking Mrs. Walker. She smiled when she saw me, a warm smile, one that I took with a lot of gratitude, after having seen that man's version of it. It was a comfort.

"Oh, hello Max, what are you doing here today? Coming to see Fang, I suppose," she said, and I replied, "Yes ma'am," nodding and telling her with my eyes that I was thankful. And so she smiled back and opened the door more for me, calling over her shoulder, "FANG! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!"

"WHO?"

"DOES IT MATTER?"

"WELL YEAH."

She sighed in a very impatient way, evidently tired of his stalling. "JUST GET DOWN HERE!"

The familiar heavy steps of him bounding down the stairs followed and then he came into view. "I was just in the middle of—" and apparently he hadn't seen me before, because then he looked up, seeming a bit shocked. "Uh…hey Max."

"Hi." I tried at a smile, but to be honest, I was still sort of thinking about that stalker-guy, and it became harder. He seemed to catch on to that though, because he questioned me with my eyes.

Mrs. Walker looked back and worth between us, from her son's still slightly confused expression, to my thoughtful one, to his, to mine, until she suddenly clapped her hands and announced that she'd leave us alone. Fang nodded, and she retreated to the living room.

"Listen, I'm—"

"We need to—"

We started talking at the same time, overlapping each other, so he let me go first, still understanding my faintly panicked expression.

"We need to talk."

He nodded, said okay, and we went up to his room. He sat on his computer chair and I sat on the bed and tried to swallow my nervousness and get the image of that man out of head. I was sure I was going to get nightmares again if I kept thinking about it.

"So…there a reason you haven't been talking to us?"

"That was straightforward," he muttered, crossing his arms and ankles, glancing at the floor.

"That's me. Always the blunt one."

He kind of half-grinned and then looked off at the window. He was fidgeting a whole lot more than usual, and kept rolling his shoulders back like he was uncomfortable.

"Um, anyways, yeah. Why, pray tell, do you keep ignoring us?" I said, trying to bring his attention back to the subject, as well as me. He still didn't look at me though, but rather, at his feet and really anywhere else. He didn't answer.

I gave him a look. "Really? Wow. Just…wow. I can't even…" I sighed, messing with the messy bun my hair had been in, in an irritated way. "Some guy was stalking me, you know."

That got his attention. "What?"

"Yep. On the way over here. Kept following me, giving me weird grins that scared the crap out of me. Barely got rid of him when I got to your house."

There was a couple seconds of silence before he asked hesitantly, "…what did he look like?" It was the first time during the whole conversation that he would look at me.

I shrugged. "Blonde hair, buzz cut, dark shades, seemed to be in his 30's. Black suit. Ear ring."

He nodded, looking a little confused for a moment. "Did you find out his name?"

I gave him an annoyed look. "Fang, he was _stalking_ _me_ and I never gave him the chance to say anything to me—'_course_ I don't know his name! I was too busy trying not to have a spazz!"

He sighed and nodded, understanding. "Sorry, sorry, just making sure."

I only sat there before a thought started tapping at the back of my mind. "Why do you need to know?"

"Wanted to see if maybe I knew him."

"I assume not."

"You assumed correct."

"Why are you distancing yourself from us?"

That made him quiet automatically, as well as making him looking away. There still wasn't an answer so I pressed on. "We're your _friends_; we know when you all the sudden don't hang out with us, or even answer your phone. None of us are _that_ oblivious."

Still no reply.

"You don't sit with us at lunch, nor by any of us during class. You don't say a word to me when I pass you in the hallway, and I've texted you six times since your absence. Not to sound like an overbearing girlfriend, but you usually answer your phone, and for me to text you _more _than twice, is…incredibly rare."

I sighed in exasperation, as he did nothing but nod once. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. "Okay, dude, I could've been raped or mugged or _killed_ on the way here to talk to you, and you're not even _looking_ at me. Now, _that_ is just _rude_."

"I'm sorry."

I blinked. "What?"

"I'm sorry, okay? I didn't realize…" he shook his head, finally coming to meet my eyes. "It's just…a bunch of crap has been going on and I couldn't…" He closed his eyes for a moment. "I didn't mean to freak you guys out," he muttered.

I nodded. "Well…you're forgiven. But _only_ if you hang with us again."

And he grinned so I knew we were cool.

I still had a couple more problems to discuss though. For one, he was still rolling his shoulders like his back was hurting him.

My eyebrows furrowed as he did it again, rubbing his shoulders and wincing a little bit. "What's wrong?" I asked, generally concerned. He shook his head, dismissing it with a quiet "it's nothing" and a glance back out the window.

"Well, clearly," I said, standing up and walking towards him, "it's something. Is your back hurting you?"

A nod.

"How bad?" I gingerly reached my hand forward to touch his shoulder.

"Not too bad." But he was still wincing a bit so I knew that wasn't the complete truth. He didn't turn away when I reached for his shoulders though, so that was a good sign.

"Can I try something?" I asked. He started to nod before I guess he realized what he was doing and shook his head. "No."

I raised an eyebrow, like, "really?"

"Fang, what—"

Then he grinned slightly and cut me off. "You know what we should do?"

I gave him a curious look, not at all sure where he was going with that. I shook my head. "Um, no, actually. What should we do?" (Since that's the polite response. But then again, when have I ever been one for being _polite_?)

"We should go out some time," he said, just a little too quickly. And I suppose what had rushed out of his mouth didn't register in his head for a moment, because while I stood there, eyes wide and a bit confused, he started to look embarrassed. Especially when I asked, "You mean 'out' as in…on a date?"

He nodded, seeming to be a little unsure of himself, but said anyway, "Uh. Yeah. A date."

"Um, oh…" I stood there for a moment not exactly sure how to respond. I mean, did I like Fang? 'Course. He was my friend. Did I find him attractive? …Well, _yeah_, but it wasn't like I was the only one. Did I want to go on a date with him?

…Yes.

"Uh, sure, I guess," I said, still not completely sure what that meant and, whoa, that was a weird thought: Fang just asked me out. _Fang_ just asked _me_ out.

Fang just asked me out!

…

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the actually girly-giddy-boy-crushing side of me. That is the side that sometimes gives Ella or Nudge fashion advice on the rare occasion that they actually ask for it.

And that is the side that, when asked out on a date by a guy (though admittedly a very attractive guy), forgets about the freaking stalker that had just been creeping on her less than an hour before.

But I'm still a girl, and I still kind-of-okay-yeah liked Fang, and so when faced with the question of do you want to go out sometime, I didn't stop and think about the terrifying man in the three-piece suit who could be planning to crash our date whenever it should be, I didn't stop and think about how strange Fang had been acting lately and how he'd basically abandoned us for quite a while, and I didn't stop to think about how our friends would react. The only real thoughts that entered my head before I replied were questions and answers. Question: do you like Fang? Answer: Duh. Question: Do you think he's hot? Answer: Any straight girl would. Question: do you want to date him?

Answer: Yes.

But then there were other things bugging at me in the back of my head, after I had accepted. Question: was Fang acting weirder than usual? Answer: Clearly. Question: why was he acting so strange? Answer: I didn't know. Question: why did he keep acting like his back was hurting him badly and why wouldn't he let you help? Answer: I didn't know. Why did he ditch you? I didn't know. Why was he so hurried? I didn't know. Why didn't he seem surprised by the stalker?

I didn't know.

I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know. It seemed that I didn't know anything about Fang those days. He was forever an enigma and I was forever an easy-to-read, open book. He kept me up wondering at night and he kept me wanting to see him, too. I wanted—no, I needed to figure out his strange behavior. And the only way to do that was to get closer to him.

I accepted his invitation, and we kept up chatter for a while, before I decided that I needed to go back home. I had left a note on the table for Ella, but I didn't think she got it and it wouldn't do any good for her to wake up from a nap, worried.

He offered to walk me home, just in case, and I let him, because really: when faced with the option of letting the guy you like walk you home, would you decline?

…Probably. But I was still in girl-giddy-boy-crushing mode, and really couldn't say no to anything sensible he requested.

I stayed in that mode until almost down the street, when the previously mentioned boy beside me suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and cried out in pain. "Fang!"

I snapped my head over immediately to see that he was bent over in pain. He had one hand on his right shoulder blade, and one hand clutched the side of his stomach.

"Are you okay?" I asked, worried out of my mind, as he hissed slightly and tried to stand up right. I helped him and fussed with him for a second. Whenever I asked what was wrong what happened was he hurt badly—he'd just shake his head, ignore it completely, or say that it was fine. I offered to help him with his shoulder if that was what was hurting him, but he shook his head a little too fast, gritted his teeth, and walked straighter.

We arrived at my house just barely a minute later, and I told him that he shoulder come inside to make sure he was okay. He told me it was fine, but wouldn't look me in the eyes, so I knew that it wasn't. And because I'm always the stubborn one, I dragged him by the arm inside and forced him to sit down at the bar.

"No, Max, it's okay," he mumbled, still not meeting my gaze while I tried to check out where his hurt shoulder was. "And it's…it's not my shoulder," he said, just barely loud enough for me to hear.

I was getting frustrated at his lack of cooperation, and set my hands on my hips in an irritated way. "Where are you hurt then?"

He didn't answer and the bar counter still seemed to be pretty interesting to him, so I sat down next to him and just stared.

It took him a while, but after a bit, he snuck a glance at my face. It didn't go unnoticed by me and I grinned faintly, knowing he was feeling at least a bit uncomfortable with my eyes trained on him. "Fang," I started in a no-nonsense tone, "tell me."

He shook his head, much like a two year old.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No."

"God, what are we? Second graders?" I finally gave in, ending the chain. The far corners of his lips came up in a small grin and I knew he wasn't still annoyed with me.

"MAX!" I heard Ella scream from up the stairway. Her light footsteps followed, and then she was staring at us, me looking accusingly at Fang, Fang looking triumphant, while he rubbed his shoulder blade again.

She gave me a confused look and pointed at Fang. "How long?"

"'Bout ten."

"Ah," she nodded, as if that two-worded sentence made more sense to her than anything she'd ever heard me say. "Well, I just wanted to tell you that I'm going out."

"Where?" I asked as she grabbed her cardigan from off the kitchen table, along with her cell phone.

"Molly's picking me up so we can go shopping for once," she explained, heading towards the doorway. Molly was one of her new friends that I wasn't close with, but had nothing against. I nodded, and then she waved and said bye, so Fang and I wave and said bye back, and then the door closed and the sound of a car driving away could be heard.

I looked back at him. "Dude," I started, "chill. Let me help. Did your head hurt you?"

There was a moment in which neither of us said anything, before he answered: "Yes."

"Was it normal headache bad, or 'migraine' bad?"

"…In between."

"What?"

He sighed and I sat down in the seat next to him. "It's…in between. Not as bad as yours, but definitely not normal."

"Well, gee, now I feel like a wimp," I muttered. He gave me a confused look, but passed it off as nothing. I didn't feel like elaborating my train of thought, and was glad he didn't question it.

I took a deep breath, shut my eyes, and then opened them again before I started talking. "Okay. This obviously means something." He groaned and put his elbow on the counter top, then setting his chin on his knuckle.

"'But what?' is the actual question," he said. I shrugged and took my hair out of its bun, starting to braid it as busy work. He kept just looking at me, probably wondering how I could be doing my hair while we were discussing something so important, but I didn't care very much. I just wanted to take my mind away from all of that.

I still hadn't told anyone about my hunch with the amnesia and dreams and jazz. I was actually starting to seriously consider telling Fang, since he…well, he seemed to understand exactly what I meant. It felt like I could trust him the most and that he would believe me instead of thinking I was crazy.

So I made a snap decision.

"Fang, I think I have amnesia," I said, very out-of-the-blue.

He automatically responded with, "Wait, what?" sitting up straighter and pulling his arm off the counter. I nodded, and began to elaborate. There wasn't really anyway I could back out at that point, and to be honest with you: I didn't really want to.

"I read a letter that Mom sent to my dad a little while before she passed. It said something about me having nightmares as a child—and while I remember those, she also said that I heard…" I paused for a second. This was the part I was unsure of.

"You heard…?" Fang prompted.

I still left out the part about Brandon, because that was an entirely different story that would be told later. "I heard voices as a child, Fang," I said, getting it over with. I continued; "Terrifying voices. Apparently, when I thought that Ella and Mom were asleep, I would talk to myself like someone else was there, like 'we' were having a conversation. And I'd wake them all up screaming and run into Mom's room and cry about these monsters. Always the same monsters, chasing me, and then I'd blabber on about needles and dog crates and these scientists that would…"

I took another deep breath, letting what I had said soak it. Then I started up again. "When I read her letter…I tried to think of a time when that would happen. I tried to remember waking up in the middle of the night screaming, or I tried to remember the voices, or I tried to remember the monsters. But I couldn't—I can't. I can't remember anything before I turned seven, actually."

He nodded, understanding everything so far. And so far, it appeared that I hadn't freaked him out, so that was a very good sign.

"I keep having déjà vu moments, around certain people, when someone says a certain name or…phrase. That man that was…stalking me…his voice was undeniably familiar, but I've never seen him in my life. I'm just…

"God, I don't admit this out loud very often, but…I'm freaking scared, Fang!" I said, looking him dead in the eyes. I wasn't going to cry, but I was getting upset for sure. "I can't remember anything; Ari's missing, I keep having reoccurring nightmares, Iggy and you are all the sudden super familiar as if I met you two as children or something—and the nightmares! With these wolf monsters that would tear you apart if they caught you. In almost every single dream, I'm being chased and I wake up right before they catch me; or I'm in a dog crate and these scientists come out with the wolves and start prodding me and sticking syringes into my skin and I just can't stand it. Nothing adds up, nothing makes sense, and I. Am. Scared."

Before I knew what was happening, I was being squished up against his chest for, like, the third time, and though I didn't cry that time, I sure did need the comfort. "Thanks," I mumbled into my hands. He nodded slightly and I could imagine that he was smiling slightly in a solemn sort of way, like he always did. "No problem," he said into my ear.

"You know…" he started to say, "It's okay to be scared sometime. I won't think lesser of you for it."

I sighed into his shirt. "Yeah…" I said, sounding defeated, "I know. Thanks again."

After a little longer, I pulled away and looked him in the eyes. I stuck out my pinky finger, and said in a stern voice, "You can't tell a single soul what I just told you. You have to pinky swear that you won't."

He hooked his pinky around mine and nodded.

* * *

**I suck. **

**Yes, I'm very aware that I suck. **

**adjfklajdkfahdsfk sdk   
**

**I'm sorry that I haven't updated. Like, legit, I'm sorry. I meant to update in February-I was trying to get myself to finish the chapter on this story's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, but couldn't. I decided that I'd try not to rush the chapter, and whoop-de-freaking-do! I didn't, and I'm rather proud of how it turned out. (Though I don't really like how the part with Max's dad turned out :\ ...But oh well.)  
**

**I tried to make up for my absence by making this chapter super long.**

**...Did it work?**

**...Probably not...*sigh***

**I've probably lost a bunch of viewers by now, but...well, I'm just thankful to those who've kept up with this story. :)**

**'Til next time, **

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**


	12. AN important

_**SUUUUPPPPPPERRRR IMMPOOORTTAAAAAANTTT**_

**Okay, ignoring my annoying moment, this will be regarding OoL and _Pretend_! **

**I have decided that since it's too hard juggling these two and a bazillion other stories (on other fanfiction accounts) and my own, original stories that I have freaking _brain crack_ for, I'm going to update _Pretend_ twice, and then OoL twice, and so on and so forth so that I don't have to one on hiatus, but I don't neglect one of them either. Sound good? Good.**

**NOW.**

**PLEASE.  
**

**GO REVIEW _PRETEND_.**

**I worked freaking _hard_ on the most recent chapter, and it has zero reviews. And it's been 3 months since I last updated.  
**

**:,( **

**NOT A _SINGLE_ REVIEW.  
**

**This makes Monica discouraged. Pleeeeeaaaaaaassssee, if you will, review that. It would mean a lot to me ^-^**

**kthxbye see you when I update and stuff  
**

***.*.*Flitting Wishes*.*.*  
**


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